REPORT 


UPON 

A SANITARY  INSPECTION 


OF 

CERTAIN  TENEMENT -HOUSE  DISTRICTS 
OF  BOSTON. 


BY 

DWIGHT  PORTER, 

Assistant  Professor  of  Civil  Engineering  in  the  Mass.  Institute 
of  Technology. 


BOSTON: 

Press  of  Rockwell  and  Churchill,  39  Arch  Street. 
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REMARKS  BY  GENERAL  FRANCIS  A.  WALKER, 
AT  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF 
CHARITIES,  DEC.  6,  1888. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  — Somewhat  more  than  a year  ago 
the  association  known  as  the  Eighth  Ward  Conference  of  the 
Associated  Charities  reached  the  conclusion  that  it  was  desir- 
able to  undertake,  outside  of  official  agencies,  an  investigation 
into  the  sanitary  condition  of  their  'portion  of  our  city.  For 
this  purpose,  an  executive  committee  was  formed,  and  means 
were  collected.  The  committee  in  charge  consulted  Prof.  Dwight 
Porter,  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  regarding  the  methods 
most  advantageously  to  be  pursued  in  such  an  investigation ; 
and  at  their  request  Prof.  Porter  undertook  the  charge  of  the 
work,  which  began  in  the  summer  of  1887.  Prof.  Porter  was 
assisted  by  certain  students  of  the  Institute. 

As  the  work  progressed,  it  seemed  desirable  to  embrace 
other  districts  within  the  scope  of  the  investigation  ; and  the 
result  of  the  summer’s  work  constituted  a sanitary  reconnois- 
sance  of  the  worst  streets  and  alleys  in  the  worst  districts  of 
Boston,  the  city  over. 

While  the  work  was  in  progress,  Prof.  Porter,  so  far  as  time 
allowed,  sent  to  the  officers  of  the  city  Board  of  Health  tran- 
scripts from  the  notes  of  his  assistants.  This,  however,  could 
not  be  done  to  a great  extent  during  the  summer,  but  in  the 
course  of  the  following  winter  all  the  information  obtained  by 
those  engaged  in  this  service  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 


137966 


IV 


city  officials,  who  had  manifested,  from  the  first,  a lively  interest 
in  the  proposed  work,  and  had  given  cordial  assistance  to  those 
undertaking  it. 

The  present  meeting  has  been  called  for  the  presentation  of 
Prof.  Porter’s  report  of  the  work  done  by  himself  and  his  assist- 
ants, and  for  the  free  discussion,  by  this  assembly,  of  the  points 
of  interest  involved. 

As  it  seems  desirable  that  such  a discussion  should  be  pre- 
sided over  by  one  who  is  an  authority  in  regard  to  matters  of 
public  hygiene,  Dr.  Walcott,  the  president  of  the  State  Board 
of  Health,  has  been  asked,  and  has  kindly  consented,  to  take 
the  chair  on  this  occasion.  I shall  only  detain  the  audience  by 
three  remarks  : — 

First.  While  the  work  of  Prof.  Porter  and  his  assistants  has 
shown  that  there  is  much  — very  much  — in  the  sanitary  condition 
of  Boston  which  requires  to  be  amended,  and  which  it  would  be 
a shame  and  a crime  not  to  amend,  by  whatever  measures  may 
be  required  for  that  purpose,  we  may  yet  fairly  congratulate 
ourselves  that  the  state  of  our  city  has  been  shown,  by  this 
intelligent  and  searching  investigation,  to  be  better  than  that  of 
many  of  the  cities  of  the  land. 

Second.  The  investigation,  the  results  of  which  are  to  be 
laid  before  you  this  afternoon,  appears  to  me  to  have  an  added 
interest  from  the  fact  that  it  has  been  the  work  of  a voluntary 
association,  using  means  collected  by  private  benevolence,  and 
operating  without  authority  of  law  and  altogether  outside  the 
established  official  agencies.  In  the  great  debate  which  is  now 
proceeding  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  in  the  decision  of 
which  is  so  largely  bound  up  the  future  of  humanity, — the  debate, 
namely,  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  powers  of  Government 
shall  be  enlarged  to  meet  the  demands  of  an  increasingly  com- 
plex organization  of  society, — every  successful  effort,  by  individ- 


Y 


uals  voluntarily  associated,  to  perform  some  part  of  that  work 
which  Government  has  been  called  upon  to  undertake,  and  which 
is  of  such  vital  consequence  to  society  that  it  must  be  under- 
taken and  performed  by  some  agency,  — makes  a valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  political  knowledge  of  the  times.  The  present 
occasion  seems  to  me  to  furnish  not  the  least  successful  among 
the  many  instances  in  which  the  public  spirit  of  our  citizens  and 
the  unwearying  efforts  and  unstinted  generosity  of  individuals 
have  availed  to  do  a work  for  society  to  which  it  was  once 
thought  only  the  authority  and  the  resources  of  Government 
would  be  adequate. 

Third . The  remark  with  which  I shall  close  may  seem  di- 
rectly antagonistic  in  spirit  to  my  last  remark  ; but  I believe  it 
to  be  so  in  form  only.  The  vulgar  proverb  tells  of  a stitch  in 
time  which  saves  nine ; and  the  sacred  proverb  tells  of  that 
which  scattereth  yet  increaseth,  and  of  that  which  withholdeth 
more  than  is  meet,  and  so  tendeth  to  poverty.  I believe  that  a 
true  view  of  the  economy  of  State  action  may  not  infrequently 
disclose  the  occasion  for  saving  a great  deal  of  interference  and 
a great  deal  of  State  action,  in  subsequent  stages,  by  putting  the 
firm  hand  of  government  upon  the  very  sources  of  evil,  and  ap- 
plying the  powers  of  the  State  to  crush  out  social  mischief  in 
its  inception.  I confess  that  it  has  for  some  time  seemed  to  me 
increasingly  probable  that  the  social  philosophy  of  the  age  would 
soon  come  to  recognize  the  Housing  of  the  Very  Poor  as  the 
point  at  which  the  remedial  action  of  the  Government  may  be 
applied,  not  only  with  the  highest  effect  upon  the  happiness 
and  health  of  the  community,  but  actually  with  large  resulting 
reductions  from  the  sum  of  State  action  and  governmental 
authority. 

It  would  be  an  act,  either  of  monstrous  ignorance  or  of  mon- 
strous impudence  on  the  part  of  any  man,  contemplating  the 


VI 


changes  of  public  sentiment  which  have  taken  place  on  this  sub- 
ject within  the  last  fifteen,  ten,  and  five  years,  to  put  his  foot 
down  and  say,  "thus  far  and  no  farther  will  I go  towards  enlarg- 
ing the  functions  of  the  State.”  In  view  of  the  great  develop- 
ments of  the  immediate  past,  the  most  likely  thing  in  regard  to 
each  one  of  us,  by  turns,  is  that,  in  five,  ten,  or  fifteen  years 
from  now,  he  will  be  occupying  a position  on  this  subject  very 
different  from  that  he  now  anticipates.  Yet  I confess  I have 
of  late  been  coming  rapidly  to  the  conviction  that  ere  long 
there  will  be  a general  consent  of  conservative  citizens,  in  every 
enlightened  State,  to  regard  as  thoroughly  good  politics  all  in- 
terference by  law  which  may  be  necessary  to  prevent  any  por- 
tion of  the  people  from  living  in  houses  which  are  unfit  for 
human  habitation,  residence  in  which  is  incompatible  with  health 
or  with  social  or  personal  decency. 

I expect  soon  to  see  the  time  come  when  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts  shall  declare  that  no  one  of  its  citizens,  under 
whatever  plea  of  poverty,  shall  have  his  home  where  he  has 
not  a sufficient  access  of  fresh  air  and  of  God’s  sunlight,  and 
where  the  conditions  as  to  drainage  and  the  disposal  of  refuse 
are  not  such  as  to  afford  reasonable  security  for  the  health  of 
the  individual,  and  to  protect  society  against  communicable 
disease.  I believe  that  not  only  will  the  law  of  the  Common- 
wealth say  this,  which,  indeed,  is  little  more  than  it  now  says, 
but  that  the  public  sentiment  of  the  community  will  have  been 
so  educated  on  this  subject  as  to  support  the  officers  of  the  law 
in  whatever  rigorous  and  painful  measures  may  be  required  for 
the  thorough,  systematic,  and  unrelenting  enforcement  of  the 
most  advanced  sanitary  requirements. 


REPORT  UPON  A SANITARY  INSPECTION  OF 
CERTAIN  TENEMENT-HOUSE  DISTRICTS 
OF  BOSTON. 


Boston,  October,  1888. 

Messrs.  Eliot  C.  Clarke,  Arthur  B.  Ellis,  Mrs.  J.  S. 
Copley  Greene,  Miss  Margaret  Greene,  and  Miss 
Anne  H.  Thwing,  committee:  — 

I have  the  honor  to  present  herewith  the  results  of  certain 
investigations  made  at  your  request,  mainly  during  August  and 
September,  1887,  the  report  upon  which  has  been,  I regret  to 
say,  unavoidably  delayed.  An  outline  of  the  work  to  be  at- 
tempted had  previously  been  prepared  by  Prof.  George  F. 
Swain,  whose  plan  I endeavored  to  follow  in  the  main,  taking 
the  liberty,  however,  to  modify  it  in  some  respects.  The 
object  sought  to  be  accomplished  was  to  obtain  data  regarding 
the  sanitary  condition  of  the  poorer  laboring  people  of  this  city, 
who  constitute  the  population  of  the  tenement-house  districts. 

In  the  Statute  Law  of  1885  a tenement  house  is  defined  as  one 
occupied  by  more  than  three  families,  living  independently  of 
one  another,  or  by  more  than  two  families  so  living  upon  any 
floor  above  the  second.  Our  work  was  not  confined  to  houses 
of  this  class  ; but  of  a total  of  about  900  houses  specially  reported, 
upward  of  300  were  strictly  tenement  houses,  as  above  defined. 
The  time  and  means  at  command  did  not  warrant  attempting  a 
thorough  and  elaborate  sanitary  survey  of  a large  section  of  the 


2 


city.  The  effort  was,  therefore,  made  to  visit  those  houses  and 
localities  presenting  the  worst  conditions,  and  mere  complete- 
ness of  statistical  returns  was  allowed  to  occupy  a minor  place. 

Work  of  this  general  character  is  not  entirely  new  or  novel, 
but  it  has  usually  been  carried  on  under  public  authority.  Even 
as  far  back  as  1840  we  find  record  of  an  inquiry  by  the  Poor- 
Law  Commissioners  of  Great  Britain  into  the  sanitary  condition 
of  the  laboring  population  in  that  country,  presenting  facts 
which  cannot  fail  to  be  of  the  greatest  interest  to  every  one 
whose  attention  has  been  called  to  the  social  problems  of  the 
present  time.  In  various  cities  of  this  country  more  or  less 
complete  sanitary  surveys,  as  they  are  called,  have  been  con- 
ducted within  the  past  five  or  ten  years.  A noteworthy  instance 
of  work  of  this  sort,  prosecuted  by  private  enterprise,  is 
that  of  the  thorough  and  admirable  investigation  which  has 
been  made  in  the  tenth  ward  of  New  York,  accomplishing 
results  which  are  familiar  to  many  people  of  this  city.  It  is 
only  by  some  such  means  that  the  knowledge  is  to  be  gained 
upon  which  may  be  based  suitable  plans  for  improving  the  con- 
dition of  a class  of  people  which,  because  of  ignorance,  poverty, 
and  lack  of  desire  for  improvement,  is  certain  to  do  nothing 
important  toward  helping  itself,  and  which  is,  at  the  same  time, 
a standing  menace  to  the  physical  and  the  social  welfare  of  the 
community  as  a whole. 

The  principal  feature  of  the  work  was  intended  to  be  a house- 
to-house  sanitary  inspection.  In  accordance  with  the  wishes  of 
those  interested  in  the  enterprise,  I selected,  for  this  purpose, 
as  assistants > several  undergraduate  students  of  the  civil  en- 
gineering department  of  the  Institute  of  Technology.  They 
entered  upon  their  duties  at  different  times,  the  entire  work  of 
inspection  and  reinspection  receiving  directly  the  equivalent  of 
perhaps  90  days’  time  of  one  man.  Their  labors  were,  in  many 


3 


respects,  extremely  disagreeable  ; but  I am  confident  that  they 
were,  upon  the  whole,  well  and  carefully  performed.  Each 
inspector  was  supplied  with  a simple  outfit,  including  blank 
forms  upon  which  to  make  returns.  It  was  his  duty  to  observe 
the  condition  of  yards  and  outbuildings,  noting  whether  clean 
and  well-kept  or  filthy  and  littered.  He  had,  further,  to  ex- 
plore the  house  itself  from  cellar  to  attic,  entering  all  rooms 
when  practicable,  measuring  the  cubic  contents  of  sleeping- 
rooms,  peering  under  the  sinks  to  see  if  they  were  trapped, 
examining  the  drainage  system  wherever  accessible,  making 
memoranda  of  uncleanliness  or  want  of  repair,  and  securing 
such  information  as  might  be  useful  regarding  tenants,  rent 
paid,  and  so  forth.  Practically  no  hindrance  to  inspection,  on 
the  part  of  tenants,  was  encountered,  although  occasionally 
objection  was  raised  by  a landlord. 

Inspections  were  made  in  portions  of  six  different  wTards,  — 
6,  7,  8,  9,  12,  and  13.  The  original  design  was  to  confine  the 
inquiry  toWard  8,  and  that  ward  received  first  attention.  It 
was  later  decided  to  extend  operations,  so  far  as  time  would 
allow,  into  the  worst  portions  of  other  wards,  and  the  North  End, 
the  South  Cove  district,  and  South  Boston  were  successively 
visited.  Certain  streets,  or  parts  of  streets,  were  sufficiently 
well  known  to  be  put  down  at  once  for  investigation.  Others 
were  decided  upon  on  the  strength  of  information  gained  from 
various  individuals,  — city  inspectors,  persons  interested  in 
charitable  work,  and  others.  Further,  when  any  new  section 
was  to  be  taken  up,  a sort  of  reconnoissance  was  made,  assist- 
ants being  detailed  to  walk  through  every  street,  and  decide, 
so  far  as  possible  by  a cursory  examination,  what  localities  or 
Individual  houses  merited  special  inspection.  The  910 1 houses 

1 251  in  Ward  6,  221  in  Ward  7,  190  in  Ward  8, 89  in  Ward  9,  50  in  Ward  12,  109  in 
Ward  13. 


4 


upon  which  reports  were  made  contained  a population  of  up- 
ward of  12,000  persons,  or  nearly  one-seventh  of  the  entire 
population  of  about  89,000  accredited  in  1885  to  the  six  wards 
visited.  On  maps  submitted  with  this  report  the  position  of 
every  house  inspected  is  shown. 

Nuisances  discovered  were  reported  to  the  city  Board  of  Health, 
whose  cooperation  was  at  all  times  most  courteously  and  freely 
extended.  It  was  endeavored  to  report  the  most  serious  at 
once ; but,  in  many  cases,  I desired  that  there  should  be  a rein- 
spection after  an  interval  and  before  making  complaint.  Op- 
portunity was  thus  given  to  learn  whether  insanitary  conditions 
were  likely  to  be  discovered  and  remedied  from  any  other 
source  than  our  own  work,  and  also  to  learn  whether  certain  of 
them  were  simply  accidental  and  temporary,  or  habitual  and 
permanent.  Reinspections  were  thus  made  at  intervals  rang- 
ing from  a few  days  to  two  or  three  months.  In  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  houses  reexamined  the  same  faulty  conditions 
at  first  reported  were  found  still  to  exist,  substantially  unim- 
proved, even  after  the  lapse  of  months.  In  the  remainder, 
either  repairs  had  been  made,  or  the  conditions  of  filth  pre- 
viously observed  had  disappeared. 

Altogether,  abstracts  were  handed  to  the  Board  of  Health  in 
the  cases  of  some  360  houses,  the  condition  of  which  appeared 
unsatisfactory.  I am  unable  to  say  definitely  to  what  extent 
these  reports  have  been  acted  upon.  Some  of  the  evils  pointed 
out  — as,  for- example,  certain  cases  of  overcrowding  — were  not 
so  serious  that  official  action  upon  them  was  really  expected, 
but  the  facts  concerning  them  were  desired,  and  were  therefore 
furnished.  I am  informed  by  the  chairman  of  the  Board  that 
the  cases  reported  have  received  attention,  and  that  the  informa- 
tion furnished  has  led  to  numerous  decided  improvements  in  the 
premises  concerned. 


General  Conditions  or  Tenement -house  Life. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  surprising  if  any  large  city  were  found 
not  to  contain  a deplorable  amount  of  misery,  and  not  to  pre- 
sent conditions  and  problems  of  the  most  serious  nature,  affect- 
ing both  the  physical  and  the  social  well-being  of  its  citizens. 
Such  conditions  and  problems  are  not  confined  exclusively  to 
any  one  class  of  the  population,  but  they  are  in  none  more  obvious 
or  more  pressing  than  in  that  composed  of  the  very  poor  people 
who  fill  the  tenement  houses.  Here  are  to  be  found  persons 
from  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  Many  of  them  are  the  very 
offscourings  of  the  countries  whence  they  came,  — poverty- 
stricken,  ignorant,  and  even  vicious.  With  these,  sanitary  con- 
siderations have  no  weight,  and  they  seem  not  to  care  how  they 
live.  Every  important  city  has  such  people,  and  Boston  shares 
them  with  the  rest ; and  yet,  considering  the  size  and  age  of 
the  city,  its  position  as  a seaport  and  landing-place  for  immi- 
grants, its  trying  climate  and  peculiar  topography,  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  sanitary,  and  perhaps  the  social,  conditions  of 
tenement-house  life  here  are  better  than  might  fairly  be  ex- 
pected. 

The  marked  impulse  toward  suburban  life  must  have  done 
much  to  relieve  the  tendency  to  overcrowding  of  the  city 
proper.  The  introduction  of  a comprehensive  scheme  of  main 
drainage  has  helped  to  offset  the  disadvantages  of  a low,  flat, 
and  artificially  made  surface,  difficult  to  drain.  The  move- 
ments of  population,  under  which  sections  of  the  city  once 
fashionable  have  been  almost  entirely  deserted  by  well-to-do 
families,  have  furnished  to  the  poorer  people  houses  much  more 
substantially  and  comfortably  built  than  any  constructed  design- 
edly as  cheap  tenement  houses  would  have  been.  Further,  the 
city  has  for  some  fifteen  years  been  under  the  oversight  of 


6 


an  efficient  Board  of  Health,  the  good  results  of  whose  labors 
are  unquestionable. 

The  poorer  tenants  in  this  city  live  in  apartments  of  two  or 
three  rooms  each,  for  which  they  pay  a weekly  rental  at  a rate 
ranging  usually  from  50  cents  to  $1  per  room.  The  average 
total  rental  paid  per  week  per  family  among  nearly  1,000 
families  for  which  we  obtained  returns  was  $1.86.1 

The  tenement  houses  proper  contain  from  four  to  fifteen  fami- 
lies each,  no  individual  houses  (separate  street  numbers)  which 
we  visited  including  more  than  about  fifteen  families,  or  more 
than  sixty  or  seventy  inmates.  The  class  of  tenement  houses 
which  was  examined  is  about  equally  in  number  composed  of 
brick  and  of  wooden  buildings,  about  two-thirds  of  all  contain- 
ing three  principal  stories  each.  There  is  a considerable  num- 
ber of  four-story  buildings  also,  a loss  number  of  five-story,  and 
a very  small  number  of  tenement  houses  of  six  full  stories.  A 
small  area  at  the  rear  of  each  house  serves  for  ash  and  garbage 
receptacles,  etc.,  and  either  in  a small  shed  or  in  the  cellar  or 
basement  of  the  house  are  bins  for  wood  and  coal.  Each  of  the 
tenements  — except  sometimes  those  on  the  highest  floor  — is 
usually  provided  with  a kitchen  sink,  or  else  has  a hall  sink  in 
common  with  another  tenement.  Clothes  from  washings  are 
hung  upon  the  roof  to  dry,  or  else  upon  lines  stretched  from 
the  rear  of  the  house.  The  stairways  and  halls  are  very 
commonly  dark  and  narrow.  In  the  poorer  houses  few  carpeted 
rooms  will  be  seen,  and  the  furniture  is  in  general  scanty  and 
poor.  And  yet  frequent  agreeable  surprises  will  be  encountered 
in  these  houses  ; and  often  where  one  would  least  expect  it,  he 
will  come  upon  apartments  very  comfortably  furnished.  Families 
that  are  very  poor  and  cramped  for  space  usually  have  to  turn 


1 Under  $1  per  week,  36  families;  $1  and  upward  to  $2,  533  families;  $2  and  up- 
ward to  $3,  326  families ; f 3 and  upward  to  $4,  83  families ; $4  and  upward,  15  families. 


every  room  to  account  for  sleeping,  even  the  kitchen  ; lounge 
beds  are  sometimes  used,  but  often  beds  are  made  directly  upon 
the  floor. 

Many  of  the  houses  date  back  a century  or  more,  and  are 
rich  in  historical  associations.  Peculiarities  of  construction 
reveal  their  distant  origin,  and  almost  obliterated  marks  of 
architectural  ornamentation  show  that  they  were  once  more  pre- 
tentious dwellings.  The  North  End  was  once  the  most  elegant 
portion  of  the  city,  but  is  said  to  have  declined  soon  after  the 
Revolution.  Twenty-five  years  or  so  ago  the  West  End  was  a 
fashionable  quarter,  but  that  in  turn  has  been  mainly  abandoned 
to  a poorer  population,  and  Ward  8 is  now  the  most  densely 
inhabited  ward  in  Boston. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  different  nationalities  have  be- 
come concentrated  in  particular  localities.  Thus  the  Negroes 
are  found  mainly  on  the  west  slope  of  Beacon  Hill,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Cambridge  street.  Nashua,  Billerica,  and  Lowell 
streets  are  occupied  largely  by  Irish ; Salem  and  adjacent 
streets  by  Jews  ; while  in  Salutation  street  and  vicinity  will  be 
found  settlements  of  Portuguese,  and  on  Salutation  and  Endicott 
streets,  and  in  various  other  parts  of 'the  North  End,  are  colonies 
almost  exclusively  of  Italians. 

Statute  laws  passed  in  1871  with  reference  to  tenement  and 
lodging  houses,  supplemented  by  others  passed  in  1885,  contain 
important  provisions  regarding  the  construction,  ventilation, 
lighting,  drainage,  cleanliness,  and  overcrowding  of  such  houses. 
While  it  was  not  sought  in  our  work  to  apply  these  laws  mi- 
nutely to  the  houses  we  examined,  the  data  obtained  by  inspec- 
tion will,  I trust,  serve  to  show  in  a general  way  whether  some 
of  the  principal  results  contemplated  by  the  laws  are,  or  are  not, 
being  realized. 


8 


Overcrowding. 

One  of  the  most  serious  evils  encountered  among  the  poorer 
population  of  a large  city  is  overcrowding,  or  the  occupancy  by 
several  families  or  persons  of  a space  suited  to  a less  number 
only.  The  marked  modern  tendency  toward  a concentration  of 
life  at  large  centres,  the  apparent  inability  or  disinclination  of 
the  poorest  and  lowest  classes,  especially,  to  free  themselves 
from  the  fetters  of  city  life,  the  poverty  which  is  inseparable 
from  the  shiftlessness,  vice,  and  misfortunes  of  these  people 
and  which  is  constantly  made  more  general  and  intense  by  the 
influx  of  a degraded  class  of  foreigners  and  the  consequent  low- 
ering of  wages,  all  act  to  produce  a steadily  increasing  density 
of  population. 

By  overcrowding,  the  spread  of  the  various  infectious  dis- 
eases is  vastly  facilitated.  The  foul  air  of  thickly  inhabited 
dwellings  assists  also,  more  than  any  other  cause,  perhaps,  in 
the  development  of  consumption,  that  destroyer  which  stands 
at  the  head  of  all  diseases  in  this  city.  Nor  are  the  evil  effects 
of  overcrowding  confined  merely  to  the  development  and  spread 
of  disease  of  the  body ; for  immorality  and  other  vices  quickly 
spring  from  the  withdrawal  of  those  barriers  of  reasonable  privacy 
which  are  essential  to  decent  society,  but  which  are  impossible 
where  many  people  are  crowded  into  small  space.  The  British 
report,  to  which  I have  already  alluded,  contains  pictures  of  the 
degradation  and  depravity  toward  which  undue  crowding  cer- 
tainly tends,  that  cannot  be  considered  without  a deep  impres- 
sion being  made  upon  the  mind.  Very  commonly  large  families 
were  found  sleeping  in  a single  damp,  filthy,  and  wretched 
room  of  small  size,  and  as  many  as  possible  in  a single  bed; 
frequently  three  or  four  families  "occupying  the  same  bedroom, 
and  young  men  and  young  women  promiscuously  sleeping  in 


9 


the  same  apartment.”  Within  a few  years  similar  conditions 
have  been  brought  to  public  notice  in  New  York  city,  conditions 
which  are  bound  ,to  be  realized  sooner  or  later  in  every  large 
city  in  which  the  tendency  to  overcrowding  is  permitted  to  go 
on  unchecked. 

In  our  inspections  in  this  city  we  discovered  scarcely  any 
enormities  such  as  appeared  in  the  investigations  to  which 
I have  just  referred,  and  yet  abundant  data  were  obtained  as  to 
the  existence  of  extensive  and  serious  overcrowding.  This  is 
common  enough  in  all  the  tenement-house  districts  of  the  city, 
and  examples  may  be  found  among  all  nationalities  of  people, 
but  it  appears  far  the  most  common  and  aggravated  among  the 
Italians  and  Polish  Jews.  It  is  largely  the  result  of  poverty, 
which  does  not  permit  tenants  to  pay  for  many  or  large  rooms. 
Frequently  it  happens  that  women  are  left  widows  with 
families  of  young  children,  who  must  economize  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  and  to  whom  no  readier  means  of  doing  this  offers 
than  the  taking  up  with  a small  rent,  even  though  it  involve 
the  sleeping  of  the  entire  family  in  one  or  two  little  rooms.  In 
very  many  cases,  however,  and  this  especially  among  the 
Italians  and  Poles,  overcrowding  appears  to  be  a matter  of  habit 
and  choice.  So  far  as  I can  learn,  however,  it  is  confined  to 
the  occupancy  by  single  families  of  apartments  too  small  for 
them,  and  is  not  shown  in  the  herding  together  of  several 
families  in  common  apartments. 

Overcrowding  may  best  be  gauged  by  considering  the  num- 
ber of  occupants  and  the  size  of  sleeping-rooms,  since  in  those 
the  family  is  most  fCtlly  represented  for  the  longest  time,  and  there 
the  evil  consequences  of  breathing  impure  air  will  most  be  felt.  It 
is  a difficult  matter,  however,  to  fix  any  exact  and  general  stand- 
ard by  which  overcrowding  may  be  properly  measured.  The 
danger  of  a particular  case  can  justly  be  estimated  only  by  con- 


10 


sidering  all  the  circumstances  of  size  and  ventilation  of  rooms, 
number  and  condition  of  health  of  occupants,  and  so  on.  For 
the  purposes  of  a general  inquiry,  however,  we  may  assume  a 
certain  amount  of  space  as  proper  for  each  occupant,  and  apply 
this  as  a test  to  the  conditions  actually  found  to  exist.  In  order 
that  the  air  of  a sleeping-room  may  be  kept  reasonably  pure 
and  suitable  for  breathing,  it  is  known  that  the  room  should  be 
large  enough  to  furnish  each  inmate  at  least  500  or  600  cubic 
feet  of  air  space,  and  that,  further,  it  must,  even  with  this  al- 
lowance, be  thoroughly  ventilated,  so  that  the  air  may  be  fre- 
quently changed.  An  idea  of  the  space  thus  required  may  be 
retained  by  recollecting  that  a room  eight  feet  high  (the  or- 
dinary minimum  height)  and  just  large  enough  to  admit  two  full- 
sized  beds,  would  contain  about  500  cubic  feet. 

The  standard  mentioned  is  a low  one  for  the  maintenance  of 
pure  air,  and  in  so  far  as  it  fails  to  be  realized  will  the  health 
of  the  offender  suffer.  The  consequences  of  the  habitual  breath- 
ing of  impure  air  are  so  gradually  developed,  however,  and  may 
be  so  disguised  by  other  causes  of  ill  health,  that  they  are  certain 
not  to  be  properly  appreciated,  especially  by  ignorant  persons. 
It  is  probable,  moreover,  that  there  may  be,  in  particular  cases, 
a very  considerable  departure  from  the  standard  mentioned 
without  any  harm  resulting  that  should  warrant  public  inter- 
ference. Nevertheless,  when  we  find  an  important  proportion 
of  the  inmates  of  the  tenement  houses  crowded  into  sleeping- 
spaces  not  one-quarter  the  size  that  should  be  had,  and  that 
most  persons  would  insist  upon  merely  for  comfort,  it  is  evident 
that  a question  has  been  encountered  that  demands  more  than  a 
passing  thought. 

As  examples  of  overcrowding,  I will  mention  a few  cases 
reported  by  inspectors:  At  No.  — Friend  street  is  a three- 
story  wooden  house,  with  a fruit  store  in  front  on  the  first  floor, 


11 


but  otherwise  given  up  to  tenements,  which  are  reached  through 
two  entrances  from  a side  alley.  The  entire  building  was 
occupied  by  sixteen  families,  which,  including  a few  lodgers, 
comprised  sixty-six  persons,  nearly  all  Italians.  The  rooms  all 
have  one  or  two  windows,  but  are  of  small  size,  and  about  one- 
half  of  all  the  occupants  slept  in  rooms  affording  them  less  than 
250  cubic  feet  each  of  air  space.  In  two  dingy  rooms  on  the 
first  floor  was  a family  of  two  adults  and  three  children,  two  of 
the  latter  sleeping  in  a little  side  room,  and  the  rest  of  the 
family  ocupying  the  remaining  room,  or  kitchen,  a bunk  in  one 
corner  and  a mattress  laid  upon  boxes  and  boards  serving  at 
night.  On  the  third  floor  a family  of  two  adults  and  five 
children  all  slept  in  a single  dirty,  ill-smelling  room  of  630 
cubic  feet  contents,  with  one  window  of  2£x4%  feet. 

At  No.  — Endicott  street,  the  two  upper  floors  of  a dilapi- 
dated three-story  wooden  house  were  occupied  by  seven 
families  of  Italians,  numbering  thiiiy-seven  persons,  of  whom 
not  more  than  half  a dozen  had  even  as  much  as  half  the  air 
space  in  sleeping-rooms  that  has  been  stated  to  be  requisite. 
Two  children  slept  in  a dark  inner  room,  just  wide  enough  for  a 
bed,  having  a door  into  one  room  and  a small  window,  16  x 24 
inches  in  size,  opening  near  the  ceiling  into  another  room. 
Three  adults  and  two  children  slept  in  a room  a little  larger 
than  would  be  suitable  for  one  person,  dirty  and  foul-smelling, 
and  the  walls  alive  with  bugs.  In  another  room  of  about  the 
same  size  were  two  lodgers  and  two  children. 

At  No.  — North  street  is  a four-story  brick  building,  the 
first  floor  front  having  a bar-room,  and  the  rest  of  the  building 
given  up  to  Italian  tenants,  of  whom  there  were  nine  families, 
comprising  about  forty  persons.  A part  of  the  sleeping- rooms 
here  are  of  very  good  size,  but  nearly  all  are  overcrowded,  the 
place  appearing  to  be  a rendezvous  for  numerous  Italian 


12 


lodgers,  who  stay  here  wThen  not  working  in  the  country.  The' 
kitchens  and  the  bedrooms  proper  are  about  equally  employed 
for  sleeping  purposes,  and  many  of  them  contain  at  times  half  a 
dozen  occupants  each. 

These  are  but  a few  examples,  out  of  many  similar  ones  which 
might  be  cited,  of  overcrowded  houses.  The  general  result  of 
our  inquiries,  so  far  as  statistics  of  sleeping-rooms  are  con- 
cerned, are  presented  in  the  accompanying  table. 


STATISTICS  OF  OVERCROWDED  SLEEPING-ROOMS. 

TenemeM  Rouses  Proper. 

Number  of  houses  included  in  these  figures,  203. 

Population  of  these  houses,  upward  of  4,500. 


Classification 
of  rooms 
according  to 
air  space 
per  occupant. 

Total 

number  of 
overcrowded 
rooms 
reported. 

Total 

number  of 
occupants  of 
rooms. 

Total 

air  space  of 
rooms. 

Average 
number  of 
occupants  per 
room. 

Average 
air  space 
per  room. 

Average 
air  space 
per 

occupant. 

Cubic  Feet. 

Cubic  Feet. 

Cubic  Feet. 

Cubic  Feet 

under  200 

194 

703 

104,355 

, 3.6 

538 

148 

200-299 

254 

778 

181,460 

3.1 

714 

233 

300-399 

170 

415 

135,060 

2.4 

794 

325 

400-499 

151 

345 

147,560 

2.3 

977 

428 

500-599 

65 

114 

59,560 

1.7 

916 

522 

All  Houses  on  which  Reports  were  made  as  to  Overcrowding. 

Number  of  houses  included  in  these  figures,  432. 

Population  of  these  houses,  upward  of  7,000. 


Classification 
of  rooms 
according  to 
air  space 
per  occupant. 

Total 
number  of 
overcrowded 
rooms 
reported. 

Total 

number  of 
occupants  of 
rooms. 

Total 

air  space  of 
rooms. 

Average 
number  of 
occupants  per 
room. 

Average 
air  space 
per  room. 

Average 
air  space 
per 

occupant. 

Cubic  Feet. 

under  200 

327 

1,180 

Cubic  Feet. 

175,390 

3.6 

Cubic  Feet. 

536 

Cubic  Feet. 

149 

200-299 

490 

1,400 

329,870 

2.9 

673 

236 

300-399 

323 

768 

252,860 

2.4 

783 

329 

400-499 

231 

510 

217,670 

2.2 

942 

427 

500-599 

119 

206 

107,010 

1.7 

899 

519 

INTERIOR  VIEW  AT  NO.  SALUTATION  STREET. 

From  a flash-light  photograph  by  Mr.  Frank  A.  Ames.  — House  occupied  by  Italians.  The  bed-room  shown  measures  13  X 17  feet, 

and  is  used  also  as  a kitchen. 


mi””.  hA‘.^K 


13 


It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  statistics  here  presented  are 
not  complete ; that  is  to  say,  not  all  the  rooms  in  the  houses 
visited  were  reported,  but  only  those  which  were  accessible  at 
the  time,  and  which  appeared  to  be  unduly  crowded.  Never- 
theless, certain  important  facts  are  brought  to  light.  It  will  be 
observed,  for  example,  that  in  about  200  selected  tenement 
houses,  representing  a population  of  upward  of  4,500  persons, 
about  one-half  that  number  were  found  sleeping  in  rooms  af- 
fording them  an  average  of  less  than  500  cubic  feet  of  space 
each,  and  more  than  700  persons  averaged  less  than  200  cubic 
feet  each.  An  inspection  of  the  tables  will  also  discover  the 
twofold  manner  in  which  the  intensity  of  overcrowding  is  dis- 
played, not  only  in  the  occupancy  of  small  rooms,  but  also, 
coincident  with  a decrease  in  the  size  of  the  room,  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  its  occupants ; thus,  the  most  densely  over- 
crowded class,  in  the  above  tables,  will  be  noticed  as  occupying 
rooms  not  much  more  than  half  as  large  as  those  occupied  by  the 
least  overcrowded  class,  and  yet  it  averages  twice  as  many  per- 
sons to  the  room. 

The  wards  which  we  visited  in  our  inspections  doubtless  com- 
prise the  most  thickly  settled  portions  of  the  city  of  Boston, 
and  it  may  be  interesting  to  notice  for  a moment  the  figures 
which  indicate  the  actual  density  of  population.  If  we  divide 
the  population  of  the  city  in  1885  by  the  number  of  acres  of 
surface  within  its  limits,  we  find  the  average  settlement  thus 
obtained  to  be  about  17  persons  to  the  acre.  This  result  is 
evidently  made  very  small,  though,  from  including  within 
the  area  of  the  city  much  available  land  not  yet  built  upon, 
together  with  extensive  areas  devoted  to  park,  railroad,  wharf, 
manufacturing,  and  business  purposes,  which,  practically,  are 
not  available  for  dwellings.  If  now  we  consider  the  various 
wards  separately,  leaving  out  certain  tracts  of  railroad  and 


14 


wharf  property,  we  find  a population,  per  acre,  in  the  various 
wards  of  Boston  proper,  ranging  from  about  43  in  Ward  11  to 
230  and  over  in  Ward  8.  In  Wards  6 and  7 the  average  set- 
tlement is  about  140  persons  per  acre.  Comparing  these  figures 
with  those  for  other  cities,  we  find  in  Chicago  the  most  densely 
settled  ward  averaging  86  persons  to  the  acre.  In  New  York 
city,  Ward  10,  to  which  I have  before  referred,  not  so  large 
by  a dozen  acres  as  Ward  6 in  Boston,  has  three  times  as  great 
a population,  averaging  in  1880  somewhat  over  430  persons 
to  the  acre. 

What  this  means  may  be  better  understood  from  the  state- 
ment, which  is  approximately  true,  that  in  the  tenth  ward  of 
New  York  the  average  density  of  settlement  for  the  entire 
ward  is  as  great  as  is  found  in  the  most  thickly  settled  district 
of  the  North  End  in  Boston. 

Further,  it  may  be  interesting  to  state  that  there  are  in  New 
York  at  least  eight  wards,  out  of  the  twenty-four,  in  each  of 
which  the  average  density  of  population  exceeds  the  highest 
average  that  can  fairly  be  calculated  for  any  ward  in  this  city. 
The  eight  wards  alluded  to  comprised,  in  1880,  a population  of 
380,000  persons,  and  constitute  in  themselves  a city  some- 
what larger  than  the  entire  city  of  Boston. 

Any  one  ward,  however,  is  extensive  enough  to  cover  con- 
siderable extremes  of  settlement,  and  contains  more  or  less  sur- 
face devoted  to  other  purposes  than  residence  ; and  it  is  only  by 
taking  smaller  areas,  such  as  assessment  blocks,  that  we  finally 
gain  a satisfactory  notion  of  the  real  density  of  population  in 
particular  parts  of  the  city.  It  now  becomes  an  easy  matter  in 
either  of  Wards  6,  7,  8,  or  12  to  pick  out  assessment  blocks  ot 
from  a quarter  of  an  acre  to  an  acre  and  a half  in  which,  if  we 
exclude  street  surfaces  in  calculations,  the  settlement  is  found 
to  average  600,  700,  and  even  more  than  that  number  of  per- 


15 


sons  per  acre.  Such  figures  will  be  reached  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  northern  depots,  and  again  near  Hay  market  square,  near 
the  North  ferry,  and  near  the  Old  Colony  depot. 

The  same  density  of  population  found  even  now  in  the  six  acres 
near  Haymarket  square  bounded  by  the  centre  lines  of  Charles- 
town, Cooper,  Salem,  and  Cross  streets,  would  fill  the  Common 
with  nearly  20,000  inhabitants ; and  if  it  could  be  extended 
over  the  whole  area  of  Boston  would  furnish  a population  of 
8,000,000  people. 


OF  POPULATION. 


16 


Q 


Popu- 
lation per 
acre. 

16.9 

29.5 

47.8 

140.5 

137.7 

231.8 
128.1 

72.2 

42.6 

81.9 
102.0 

177.0 

103.8 

82.7 

86.0 

432.0 

662. 

715. 

668. 

686. 

105.0 

177.0 

Popu- 

lation. 

390,393 

664,634 

1,189,677 

17,256 

12.038 

11,986 

11,239 

9,746 

17,863 

13,845 

22,547 

Ifi  4SQ 

14,747 

14,140 

32,980 

47,553 

574 

443 

1,130 

214 

296 

391 

Area 
in  acres. 

23,085 

22,498 

24,893 

122.8 

87.4 

51.7 

87.7 

135.0 
419.2 

169.0 

221.1 
93.0 

142.0 

171.0 

384.0 

110.0 

0.867 

0.620 

1.692 

0.312 

2.817 

2.211 

II 

If 


ss 


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iiiiiiiiiii } 
. I 


mil 

pqpq«ww 

•vooSS 

mu 


IT 


The  figures  which  have  been  presented  are  interesting,  I 
think,  for  comparison  with  each  other,  but  would  mean  still 
more  if  they  could  be  compared  with  a limit  of  allowable  den- 
sity of  population  ; in  other  words,  if  we  could  learn  whether 
they  indicate  a thicker  settlement  than  it  is  practicable  to  ac- 
commodate. Any  such  limit  must  be  roughly  and  arbitrarily 
set,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  a reasonably  low  one  is  furnished 
by  certain  houses  of  the  Boston  Cooperative  Building  Com- 
pany. Their  property  on  Thacher  and  Endicott  streets  covers 
an  area  of  between  6,000  and  7,000  square  feet,  which  is  built 
upon  as  closely  as  is  *wise.  The  buildings  are  as  high  as  is  de- 
sirable for  tenement  houses,  the  space  within  is  economically 
used,  and  yet  few,  I presume,  would  take  exception  to  the 
arrangements  for  the  health  and  comfort  of  tenants.  We  might 
fairly  assume,  therefore,  that  the  condition  here  found  will  give 
us  a reasonable  maximum  limit  for  density  of  population, 
although  the  area  involved  is  rather  small  for  obtaining  an 
average  for  comparison.  The  settlement  on  this  property 
is  at  the  rate  of  some  1,200  persons  per  acre.  It  would  ap- 
pear theoretically  possible,  therefore,  with  suitable  buildings 
and  oversight,  to  provide  comfortably  for  even  a greater  pop- 
ulation than  is  now  found  in  the  most  crowded  parts  of  the  city. 

Although  the  laws  are  not  the  only  means  for  dealing  with 
the  question  of  overcrowding,  they  are  perhaps  the  most  direct 
means  ; and  it  may  be  well  at  this  point  to  notice  such  provisions 
as  they  contain  affecting  this  problem.  The  laws  and  ordinances 
now  in  force  in  this  city  provide  that  the  Board  of  Health  may 
remove  the  inmates  of  any  tenement  house  or  building  in 
which  the  number  of  occupants  is  so  great  as  to  be  the  cause  of 
nuisance  and  sickness,  and  the  source  of  filth.  The  Statute  Law 
of  1885  gives  the  Board  power  further  to  make  such  regulations, 
in  addition  to  those  definitely  stated  in  the  law,  concerning  the 


18 


ventilation  and  overcrowding  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses 
and  buildings  where  persons  are  employed,  as  it  may  deem 
necessary ; subject,  however,  to  the  laws  relating  to  building  in 
the  city  of  Boston. 

The  New  York  law  of  1887  provides  that,  "Whenever  it 
shall  be  certified  to  the  Board  of  Health  by  the  sanitary  superin- 
tendent that  any  tenement  house,  or  room  therein,  is  so  over- 
crowded that  there  shall  be  afforded  less  than  600  cubic  feet  of 
air  to  each  occupant  of  such  building  or  room,  the  said  Board 
may,  if  it  deem  the  same  to  be  wise  or  necessary,  issue  an  order 
requiring  the  number  of  occupants  of  such  building  or  room  to 
be  reduced,  so  that  the  inmates  thereof  shall  not  exceed  one 
person  to  each  600  cubic  feet  of  air  space  in  such  building  or 
room.” 

In  either  city  the  matter  is  really  left  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Board  of  Health,  although  there  may  be  a certain  advantage 
in  the  wording  of  the  New  York  law,  which  calls  attention  to 
a definite  standard  of  air  space,  which  it  is  well  that  landlords 
on  the  one  hand,  and  those  seeking  to  improve  the  conditions 
of  the  tenement  houses  on  the  other,  should  have  clearly 
before  them,  and  toward  which  it  is  to  be  assumed  that  the 
Board  of  Health  will,  so  far  as  practicable,  direct  its  efforts. 
An  attempt,  however,  at  the  present  time,  to  enforce  generally 
any  arbitrary  standard  of  air  space  for  existing  tenement  houses 
— except,  perhaps,  an  absurdly  low  one,  far  beneath  proper  sani- 
tary requirements  — would,  I think,  be  entirely  impracticable. 
To  insist,  for  example,  that  all  tenement-house  sleeping-rooms 
should  average  as  much  as  200  cubic  feet,  or  even  150  cubic  feet, 
to  the  occupant,  would  require  poor  people  by  the  hundred  and 
thousand  to  be  ousted  from  their  homes.  Existing  over- 
crowding can  be  lessened  only  gradual!}7,  and  it  appears  to  me 
that  this  can  best  be  done  by  allowing  the  Board  of  Health  wide 


19 


discretionary  power,  by  the  co-operation  and  watchfulness  of 
private  citizens  and  organizations  in  pointing  out  cases  for 
action  and  seeing  that  the  powers  invested  in  the  authorities 
are  utilized,  and  by  publicity  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Health 
of  the  results  attained. 

The  work  is  a difficult  one,  without  doubt.  It  requires 
money  and  assistants  and  the  exercise  of  much  good  judg- 
ment. The  tenement-house  population  is  a shifting  one,  the 
conditions  in  any  one  house  are  constantly  changing,  and  the 
persons  removed  from  one  apartment  are  very  likely  to  migrate 
to  some  other  which  is  no  better  suited  to  their  occupancy, 
until  again  discovered  and  routed  out.  Nevertheless,  the  evils  of 
overcrowded  tenement  houses  are  so  serious,  that  to  my  mind 
it  seems  certain  that  whatever  is  practicable  should  be  under- 
taken to  relieve  the  trouble  ; and  certainly  there  are  plenty  of 
houses  toward  which  the  Board  of  Health  could  at  once  with 
advantage  direct  its  efforts. 

I would  suggest,  moreover,  as  likely  to  be  an  aid  in  dealing 
with  certain  cases,  that  the  Board  of  Health  should  be  given 
authority  to  serve  notices,  at  its  discretion,  upon  the  owners 
or  lessees  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses,  these  notices  to 
be  of  the  nature  of  permits,  assigning  a limit  to  the  number 
of  occupants  allowable  in  each  apartment  or  house  considered, 
a single  violation  of  the  terms  of  the  notice  to  be  followed  by  a 
warning,  and  a subsequent  violation  to  be  treated  as  a criminal 
offence.  The  mere  removal  of  an  excessive  number  of  families 
from  a house  might  otherwise  be  followed  by  an  immediate 
refilling,  until  the  next  inspection. 

The  matter  of  ventilation  is  of  course  very  intimately  con- 
nected with  overcrowding,  since  if  even  small  sleeping-rooms 
were  at  all  times  sufficiently  well  ventilated,  much  of  the  harm 
coming  from  the  degree  of  overcrowding  found  in  this  city 


20 


would  be  obviated.  Sufficiently  good  ventilation  for  the  number 
of  occupants  often  found,  however,  I judge  to  be  impracticable. 
There  is,  to  be  sure,  a constant,  unperceived  interchange  of  air 
between  the  inside  and  outside  of  a house,  especially  in  build- 
ings not  more  tightly  constructed  than  many  of  the  tenement 
houses  ; and  most  of  the  sleeping-rooms  in  these  houses  are  pro- 
vided with  one  or  more  windows,  which  in  warm  weather  are 
usually  kept  open  for  comfort  and  then  give  very  good  air. 
In  cold  weather,  however,  windows  are  kept  closed,  and  the 
effects  of  defective  ventilation  become  plainly  marked. 

The  advantages  of  pure  air  are  not  commonly  considered  by 
tenants,  and  even  if  they  were,  poverty  and  consequent  en- 
forced economy  in  the  use  of  fuel  would  lead  many  to  prevent 
in  every  possible  way  the  loss  of  heat ; and  doubtless  an 
attempt  properly  to  ventilate  rooms  by  opening  windows  would 
often  result  in  greater  immediate  peril  from  cold  draughts  than 
is  suffered  from  bad  air.  I can  see  no  better  mode  of  dealing 
with  this  question,  however,  than  to  require,  so  far  as  possible, 
a proper  size  for  inhabited  rooms,  and  one  or  more  windows  in 
these  opening  to  the  outer  air,  and  so  arranged  as  to  be  conven- 
iently opened  from  either  top  or  bottom.  If  tenants  are  pro- 
vided with  suitable  rooms  and  windows,  and  then  neglect  to 
supply  themselves  with  fresh  air,  they  must  suffer  the  conse- 
quences. 

The  law  requires  that  every  tenement  house  " shall  have  in 
the  roof,  at  the  top  of  the  hall,  an  adequate  and  proper  venti 
lator,  of  a form  approved  by  the  inspector  of  buildings.” 
This  requirement  is,  I think,  quite  commonly  observed,  and 
appears  to  be  a very  sensible  and  efficient  one. 

The  pressure  of  overcrowding  is  shown  not  only  in  the 
excessive  occupancy  of  rooms  properly  suited  to  habitation  and 
to  sleeping,  but  in  the  employment  of  small  inner  rooms  and 


21 


cellars  and  basements,  unless  the  evil  is  reached  by  law.  In 
New  York  and  Boston  somewhat  elaborate  provisions  have 
been  made  in  laws  regarding  these  matters,  and  it  may  be  well 
to  refer  to  them  here. 

The  law  in  force  in  this  city  prescribes  that  sleeping-rooms 
not  having  direct  communication  with  the  outer  air  shall  be 
ventilated  by  means  of  two  small  ventilating  windows  or 
transoms  communicating,  according  to  circumstances,  with 
halls  or  with  external  rooms  that  do  have  windows  to  the  outer 
air.  Possibly,  with  the  ventilators  and  doors  open,  and  under 
favorable  conditions  of  ventilation  in  connecting  rooms,  a 
moderate  interchange  of  air  with  these  inner  rooms  might  be 
effected.  But  in  the  cases  we  noticed  there  was  often  but  one 
ventilating  window,  and  that  closed ; and  the  only  reliance 
was  really  upon  the  door,  which,  I presume,  is  usually  left 
open.  The  rooms  were,  as  a matter  of  course,  close  and  ill- 
smelling. Moreover,  they  were  almost  invariably  small  and 
overcrowded,  generally  containing  less  than  six  hundred  cubic 
feet,  often  presenting  the  appearance  of  having  been  cut  off 
from  other  rooms  so  that  a few  more  persons  might  be  packed 
into  overcrowded  houses,  and  containing  anywhere  from  one  to 
six  occupants  each.  They  were  naturally  very  dark,  and,  being 
occupied  by  the  lowest  class  of  tenants,  could  not  be  expected 
to  be  kept  cleanly  and  sweet,  and  were,  as  a rule,  among  the 
worst  rooms  encountered. 

About  60  of  these  inner  rooms,  with,  say,  150  occupants, 
were  specially  reported  by  my  assistants.  Even  if  the  number 
were  considerably  greater,  it  would  yet  constitute  so  small  a 
percentage  of  the  total  number  of  rooms  occupied,  and  the 
rooms  are  such  an  unmitigated  nuisance,  that  I think  the  pro- 
hibition of  their  use  for  sleeping  purposes,  as  at  present  ar- 
ranged, is  entirely  warrantable  in  tenement  houses  of  a low 


22 


grade.  If  these  houses  cannot  be  so  adapted  to  the  use  of 
tenants  as  to  afford  reasonable  sanitary  provisions  of  light,  air, 
and  so  on,  then  they  had  better  not  be  allowed  employment  in 
such  capacity  at  all. 

Efficient  means  should  also  be  taken  to  prevent  the  introduc- 
tion of  rooms  such  as  I have  described  into  new  tenement  and 
lodging  houses.  At  first  thought  it  may  seem  that  to  forbid 
the  use  of  rooms  not  having  direct  communication  with  the 
outer  air  must  limit  occupancy  to  front  and  rear  rooms  in 
a large  class  of  houses  situated  midway  in  blocks,  and  that 
it  must  thus  in  the  case  of  houses  built  upon  deep  lots  entirely 
prevent  the  economical  use  of  the  building  space.  Such 
prohibition,  would,  it  is  true,  tend  to  prevent  a niggardly  use 
of  the  space  ; but  experience  elsewhere  has  proved  that  it  need 
not  interfere  at  all  with  a suitable  development  of  the  prop- 
erty ; while,  at  the  same  time,  it  acts  to  bring  about  surprising 
improvements  in  the  structural  design  of  the  tenement  houses,’ 
which  may  easily  be  so  constructed,  with  large  light-shafts,  as 
to  afford  light  and  air  to  every  room. 

Thus  in  New  York  city  there  has  been  a constant  advance  in 
tenement-house  designs,  induced  by  a steady  raising  of  the 
standard  of  requirements  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  Health, 
until  there  has  come  to  be  about  as  much  contrast  between  the 
best  recent  designs  and  the  designs  common  ten  or  fifteen  years 
ago,  as  there  is  between  light  and  darkness.  The  present  New 
York  law  empowers  the  Board  of  Health  to  prohibit  at  its 
discretion  the  erection  of  new  tenement  houses,  or  the  conver- 
sion to  such  use  of  old  buildings,  covering  more  than  sixty-five 
per  cent,  of  their  lots.  In  view  of  the  success  which  appears 
to  attend  the  measures  adopted  for  that  city,  I am  of  the 
opinion  that  limitations  and  requirements  of  similar  character 
nfio-ht  well  be  introduced  here. 


23 


Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  James  C.  Bayles,  President  of 
the  Health  Department  of  New  York  city,  I am  enabled  to 
present  a number  of  diagrams  illustrating  the  advances  in 
tenement-house  construction  to  which  I have  referred,  and  of 
especial  interest  as  showing  what  may  be  accomplished  under 
the  unfavorable  condition  of  narrow  and  deep  city  lots.  In 
this  connection  I also  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  at  length  from 
a recent  report  by  Mr.  Bayles,  on  " The  Tenement-House  Prob- 
lem in  New  York  : ” — 

With  a view  of  illustrating  the  gradual  improvement  in  the  methods  of 
construction  with  reference  to  light  and  air,  illustrations  are  given  showing, 
from  the  earliest  years  to  the  present  time,  the  gradual  but  efficient  and 
practical  methods  by  which  the  largest  amount  of  light  and  air  space  is 
secured  for  the  greatest  number  of  rooms  that  may  be  possible  upon  the 
limited  ground  area  of  a single  city  lot. 

Results  such  as  are  now  insisted  upon  by  the  Health  Department  were 
not  deemed  possible  even  a few  years  ago.  No  plan  of  a tenement  house, 
apartment  house,  or  flat  is  now  approved  by  the  Board  unless  every  inner 
room  has  a proportionate  amount  of  light  and  air  directly  communicable 
with  the  exterior  air.  The  final  outcome  now  is,  that  every  builder  and 
architect  must  seek,  not  only  how  to  secure  the  best  paying  investment, 
but  also  the  best  sanitary  and  hygienic  arrangement  of  the  rooms,  drainage, 
and  plumbing  of  every  tenement  house  he  proposes  to  build.  This  result 
has  necessarily  been  obtained  by  progressive  stages.  The  opposition  had 
to  be  gradually  overcome,  and  the  public  to  be  educated  upon  these  impor- 
tant subjects,  and  the  competition  of  securing  tenants  by  the  improvements 
introduced  in  new  buildings  made  an  effectual  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  all 
the  necessary  rules  for  light  and  ventilation,  as  well  as  for  other  sanitary 
requirements  connected  with  such  houses.  From  the  first  approval  by  the 
Board  in  1879  of  light  shafts  aggregating  in  area  not  more  than  thirty-two 
square  feet  for  each  four  or  five  story  house,  there  has  been  a steady 
progress,  until  an  aggregate  area  of  265  square  feet  is  now  required. 
It  may  be  here  mentioned  incidentally  that  since  1886  there  have  been 
very  few  plans  for  large  apartment  houses  submitted  to  the  Board,  it  having 
become  apparent,  probably,  that  houses  of  this  class  were  not  profitable 
financially. 


24 


During  these  progressive  changes  in  the  construction  of  tenement 
houses,  almost  innumerable  varieties  of  plans  were  evolved  by  the  inge- 
nuity of  architects  and  builders,  and  the  former  have  been  stimulated  to 
the  study  of  new  methods  and  plans  as  each  progressive  requirement  has 
been  insisted  upon  by  the  Board. 

In  the  public  discussions  of  1879,  which  resulted  in  the  enactment  of  the 
tenement-house  laws  of  that  year,  the  question  arose  as  to  what  constituted 
a satisfactory  plan  for  a tenement  house,  due  regard  being  given  to  the 
necessities  of  four  families  on  each  floor,  and  the  size  and  value  of  lots.  A 
public-spirited  citizen  offered  a large  sum  of  money  as  a prize  for  the  best 
tenement-house  plan,  and  several  hundred  of  these  plans  were  offered. 

The  great  improvement  in  the  construction  for  light  and  ventilation  of 
tenement  houses  now  being  enforced,  shows  well  by  comparison  with  these 
prize  plans.  Indeed,  the  present  typical  plan  is  superior  in  many  respects 
to  the  one  to  which  the  prize  was  awarded  in  1879. 

In  many  instances,  in  the  earlier  attempts,  the  locations  selected  for  water- 
closets  on  the  different  floors  proved  very  objectionable,  being  sometimes 
immediately  adjacent  to  the  kitchens  or  bedrooms,  and  without  ventilating 
shaft,  resulting  — by  neglect  and  misuse  — in  becoming  offensive  and  un- 
bearable nuisances,  contaminating  the  atmosphere  of  dwelling  apartments ; 
and  when  placed  in  the  ends  of  the  halls  between  the  adjoining  kitchen 
rooms,  with  imperfect  plumbing  and  inadequate  flushing  arrangements, 
permitting  the  regurgitation  of  their  offensive  contents  into  the  kitchen 
sinks.  The  very  great  improvement  in  this  respect  is  seen  in  the  methods 
of  construction  and  location  as  now  insisted  upon  by  the  Board  of  Health. 
By  these  changes  these  sources  of  danger  to  health  are  now  removed  to  the 
farthest  limit  from  dwelling  and  sleeping  rooms,  and  so  constructed, 
plumbed,  and  flushed  as  to  secure  the  most  perfect  utilization  of  the  “water- 
carriage  system  11  for  the  rapid  removal  of  the  contents,  and  at  the  same 
time  so  furnished  with  means  for  ventilation  as  to  prevent  offensive  odors 
from  contaminating  the  respirable  atmosphere  of  the  rooms  or  halls. 

In  March  of  the  present  year  (1887),  the  lighting  and  ventilation  of  tene- 
ment houses  was  made  a subject  of  careful  consideration  by  the  Board  of 
Health,  resulting  in  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution : — 

Resolved , That  the  Regulations  of  the  Board  in  relation  to  Light  and  Ven- 
tilation of  New  Tenement  Houses  be  and  are  hereby  amended  as  follows : — 
No  plan  for  light  and  ventilation  of  a tenement  house  with  apartments 
on  five  or  more  floors,  and  having  more  than  twelve  rooms  on  a floor,  to  be 
erected  on  an  ordinary  city  lot,  except  a corner  lot,  will  be  approved  by  this 


NEW  YORK  CITY. 


Typical  Tenement  House  prick  to  1879. 

(Inner  rooms  neither  lighted  nor  ventilated.) 


t 


(1) 


-68^-ft- 


First  Floor. 


Upper  Floor. 


NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Prize  Plan  of  the  Tenement-House  Design  Competition 
of  1879. 


(2) 


4fe 


% 


V'tt 


7-2  ftr 


NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Group  of  the  Earliest  Plans  approved  by  the  Board  of  Health 

UNDER  THE  LAW  OF  1879. 

(Small  light  and  ventilation  shafts  for  rooms  farthest  from  outer  air.) 

(3) 


(4) 


» r vt/ 

UNIVERSli « of li-U^IS. 


NEW  YORK  CITY. 

Present  Type  of  Tenement  for  Four  Families  on  each  Floor, 
in  Lots  25  feet  by  100  feet. 

(Open  courts  instead  of  studded  light  shafts.) 


(5) 


25 


Board,  where  more  than  sixty-five  per  centum  of  the  lot  is  to  be  covered, 
unless  the  courts  to  light  and  ventilate  the  interior  rooms  thereof  shall  have 
an  area  of  at  least  two  hundred  and  sixty-five  square  feet,  and  where  there 
are  to  be  twelve  rooms  on  a floor,  the  area  of  such  courts  must  not  be  less 
than  two  hundred  and  fifteen  square  feet. 

Resolved , That  this  amendment  shall  take  effect  April  11,  1887. 

This  present  plan  marks  the  most  desired  and  greatest  improvement  in  ten- 
ement-house construction  which  has  grown  out  of  sanitary  legislation  and  the 
efforts  of  the  Board  of  Health  since  1879.  Instead  of  dark,  unventilated  rooms 
and  halls,  peculiar  to  tenement  houses  of  that  date,  the  rooms  in  the  houses 
now  being  built  are  well  lighted  and  ventilated  by  courts  as  large  in  area  as 
can  possibly  be  required,  without  reducing  the  size  of  the  rooms  to  an  im- 
practicable degree.  In  place  of  the  old  privy-vault  in  the  yard,  the  use  of 
which  in  cold  weather  was  often  impossible  to  the  debilitated  or  sick,  every 
two  families  are  provided  with  a water-closet  on  each  floor,  with  suitable 
arrangements  for  flushing,  and  the  compartments  are  well  lighted  and 
ventilated.  The  cellars,  formerly  noisome,  unventilated,  unlighted,  unpaved, 
and  damp,  are  now  provided  with  windows  to  the  outer  air,  and  the  floors 
are  concreted  throughout.  The  old  hydrant  in  the  yard,  with  its  uncon- 
nected cesspool  for  receiving  house-slops  and  liquid  waste  for  the  whole 
household,  is  now  abolished,  and  water  is  supplied  in  each  apartment,  and 
in  connection  with  suitable  kitchen-sinks  and  washtubs ; and  instead  of 
the  defective  earthen  drains  with  leaking  joints,  saturating  the  adjacent 
ground,  and  open  joints  in  waste  and  soil  pipes, — where  they  were  provided 
in  the  older  houses,  — and  untrapped  and  unventilated  waste-pipes,  placing 
the  living-rooms  in  direct  communication  with  the  public  sewers,  the  plumb- 
ing system  is  now  up  to  the  highest  standard  of  modern  times  in  every  de- 
tail, and  superior  in  all  essentials  to  the  plumbing  and  drainage  to  be  found 
in  even  the  best  private  houses,  except  those  of  the  most  recent  date. 

These  great  improvements  in  the  hygienic  and  sanitary  arrangements  of 
the  tenement  houses  as  now  built,  must  necessarily  reduce  the  death  and 
sickness  rates  of  such  houses.  The  extent  to  which  this  is  true  can  well  be 
estimated  from  the  fact  that  in  each  of  the  recent  years  these  changes  and 
improvements  have  been  provided  in  new  tenement  houses  for  upwards  of 
60,000  persons. 

The  statute  law  defines  a " cellar  ” as  a " basement  or  lower 
story  of  any  building  of  which  one-half  or  more  of  the  height 


26 


from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling  is  below  the  level  of  the  street 
adjoining.”  The  occupancy  as  a dwelling  of  any  cellar,  without 
permit  from  the  Board  of  Health,  is  illegal,  unless  there  is  com- 
pliance with  certain  provisions  of  the  law  relating  to  height, 
ventilation,  drainage,  and  so  on.  Moreover,  the  Board  of 
Health  is  given  authority  to  make  such  other  regulations  as  to 
cellars  as  it  deems  necessary,  subject  to  the  Boston  building 
laws.  Very  few  cellars,  as  above  defined,  were  found  occupied  ; 
and  on  the  other  hand  there  was  frequent  evidence  of  cellars 
which  had  once  been  occupied  having  been  abandoned.  There 
remain,  however,  some  cellars  and  numerous  basements,  usu- 
ally about  on  the  border  line  of  cellars  as  defined  by  the 
statutes,  which  are  occupied  not  only  during  the  day,  but  also 
for  sleeping  at  night. 

The  objections  to  the  occupancy  of  cellars  — and  I will  include 
these  objections  also  with  reference  to  basements  — arise,  I 
suppose,  from  the  likelihood  of  their  being  dark,  ill  ventilated, 
and  damp,  as  well  as  unwholesome  from  the  ground  air  which 
enters  them.  Basement  rooms  can  usually  be  fairly  well  lighted 
and  ventilated,  but  I doubt  if  they  can  be  kept  suitably  dry, 
especially  in  made  land,  without  a good  cemented  bottom. 
Any  cellar  in  such  locality  with  simply  the  natural  earth  bot- 
tom will  be  damp.  The  covering  it  with  a floor  renders  the 
dampness  less  perceptible,  but  its  existence  will  be  shown  in 
the  decay  of  planks  and  in  the  moulding  of  oil-cloths  and  other 
articles.  It  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  nearly  all  the  region 
occupied  by  the  buildings  which  we  are  considering  is  "made 
land,”  the  cellar  bottoms  of  the  houses  being  elevated  but 
slightly,  and  sometimes  not  at  all,  above  the  level  of  high- 
water.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  therefore,  that  without 
special  precaution  there  will  be  undue  dampness  in  such 
cases.  This  would  be  most  noticeable  in  winter,  and  might 


27 


doubtless  be  shown  experimentally,  by  suitable  tests.  In  a 
summer  day  I attempted  to  test  the  humidity  with  hygrome- 
ters in  a number  of  Still  man-street  houses  ; but  although  there 
was  a considerable  difference  in  humidity  between  the  basement 
and  second  stories,  I did  not  consider  the  results  obtained  very 
uniform  or  satisfactory.  In  the  houses  we  inspected,  not  more 
than  thirty  or  forty  basement  rooms  were  specially  reported  as 
occupied  for  sleeping,  though  the  number  occupied  as  kitchens 
would  be  considerably  greater. 

It  would  be  a desirable  and  perhaps  warrantable  thing  to 
require  that  the  basements  or  cellars  of  all  tenement  houses 
should  be  made  water-tight  by  cement,  concrete,  or  asphalt,  — 
the  expense  of  cementing  being  perhaps  not  more  than  would  be 
offset  by  one  or  two  months’  rents  from  the  house,  while  the  con- 
struction is  a permanent  one,  of  real  value  to  the  building ; but 
with  even  more  propriety,  I think,  it  might  be  required  that 
this  should  be  done  in  buildings,  the  cellars  or  basements  of 
which  can  be  occupied  as  dwellings,  or  especially  as  sleeping- 
rooms.  The  use  of  the  basements  or  cellars  of  tenement  and 
lodging  houses  for  sleeping  purposes  might  indeed  with  advan- 
tage, it  seems  to  me,  be  prohibited.  The  benefits  would  be 
undoubted;  and  the  number  of  houses  affected  would  be  so 
small  that  the  plan  cannot  be  regarded  as  at  all  impracticable. 

Garbage  Removal. 

It  is  required  by  law  that  tenement  houses  shall  be  kept  clean 
and  free  from  accumulations  of  dirt,  filth,  garbage,  and  other 
objectionable  matter,  whether  within  the  house  or  in  the  yard 
or  alley  connected  with  it.  Such  material  must  not  be  thrown 
into  the  street,  but  must  be  stored  in  suitable  receptacles,  from 
which  it  will  be  collected  by  the  city  scavengers.  Garbage  is 


28 


thus  removed  at  least  twice  a week  in  the  winter  months  and 
three  times  a week  in  summer. 

As  regards  the  removal  of  garbage,  so  far  as  could  be  judged 
the  work  of  the  city  scavengers  is  faithfully  performed,  and 
such  defects  as  were  observed  arose  from  the  dirty  habits  of 
tenants,  many  of  whom  do  not  hesitate  to  throw  garbage,  or, 
indeed,  filth  of  any  description,  at  random  over  yards,  alleys, 
and  shed  roofs.  As  a rule,  there  is  in  the  rear  of  each  tene- 
ment house  a small  yard  or  area,  which  is  planked  over,  and  is 
reached  from  the  street  either  by  an  alley  between  adjacent 
houses,  or  by  a covered  passage-way  under  the  building.  A 
considerable  part  of  the  yard  is  taken  up  by  a shed  for  the  stor- 
age of  wood  and  coal  and  the  setting  of  garbage  barrels,  leaving 
a clear  space  which  varies  in  size,  but  which  in  the  thickly 
settled  parts  of  the  city  often  does  not  exceed  one  hundred 
or  two  hundred  square  feet.  Nearly  always  the  passageways, 
yards,  and  fuel  sheds  were  found  in  a reasonably  neat  con- 
dition, but  in  some  forty  or  fifty  cases,  constituting  not  more 
than  five  per  cent,  of  those  examined,  the  premises  were  badly 
littered  with  garbage,  and  sometimes  with  much  worse  filth. 

In  a few  cases,  the  worst  examples  of  which  are  probably  at 
the  corners  of  Salutation  and  Hanover  streets,  houses  have  been 
built  completely  covering  their  lots,  so  that  there  is  no  yard 
room  whatever,  and  garbage  has  to  be  stored  within  the  house 
itself,  a very  offensive  and  objectionable  thing.  In  each  of  the 
cases  to  which  I have  special  reference  above,  the  garbage  is 
thus  stored  in  barrels  in  a closet  on  the  first  floor  of  a house 
occupied  by  a dozen  or  more  families.  In  one  of  these  cases 
the  inspector  reported  the  garbage  closet  in  a very  foul  con- 
dition, and  the  stench  from  it  strongly  perceptible  to  the  very 
top  of  the  house,  which  is  of  five  stories. 

The  yards  and  alleys  are  so  readily  accessible  from  the  street, 


29 


and  often  are  so  open  to  general  observation,  that  it  is  prac- 
ticable for  the  inspectors  of  the  Board  of  Health  to  exercise  a 
tolerably  close  supervision  over  them,  and  this  appears  to  be 
done.  In  a certain  proportion  of  offending  cases,  the  habit  of 
cleanliness  can  be  enforced  by  sharp  oversight  and  repeated 
admonishings  from  the  inspector ; and  so  far  as  it  can  be  suc- 
cessfully used  this  method  is  undoubtedly  far  the  best.  In 
other  cases,  however,  nothing  will  suffice  but  recoui'se  to  the 
law,  which  seems  clear  and  is  accompanied  by  a heavy  penalty. 
It  is  unquestionable  that  a considerable  number  of  the  forty  or 
fifty  bad  cases  reported  are  habitually  bad ; and  although  upon 
the  appearance  of  a city  inspector  there  is  at  least  the  sem- 
blance of  a prompt  compliance  with  his  directions  about  cleaning 
the  premises,  I am  of  opinion  that  the  work  is,  in  such  places  as 
the  above,  short-lived,  and  that  more  effective  measures  should 
be  employed.  Similar  remarks  might  be  made  regarding  the 
streets.  So  far  as  they  were  incidentally  observed,  they  were 
not  often  noticed  to  be  littered  or  fouled  with  garbage  thrown 
from  private  premises.  Certain  narrow  streets,  however,  such 
as  Stillman  and  Morton,  were  found  very  much  littered  in  this 
way ; and  I have  been  informed  that  often  a city  gang  would 
have  scarcely  finished  its  work  in  these  streets  before  the  latter 
would  again  be  fouled  by  the  garbage  thrown  from  the  various 
houses.  In  general,  though,  the  streets  appeared  to  be  in  as 
good  condition  as  could  be  expected,  considering  defects  of 
construction ; and  the  questions  connected  with  them  have, 
perhaps,  already  been  sufficiently  discussed  in  the  public 
press. 

Uncleanliness  within  the  Houses. 

As  regards  the  condition  of  the  interior  of  the  houses  them- 
selves, it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  law  to  which  reference 


30 


was  made  a short  time  since  contemplates  a very  scrupulous 
degree  of  cleanliness,  but  only  such  as  may  fairly  be  regarded 
as  essential  to  decency  and  health.  Just  what  requirements 
are  thus  involved  cannot  be  very  nicely  stated.  Dirt  is  dirt,  to 
be  sure,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  judge  when  a tenement  or  a 
room  is  in  a poor  condition  as  concerns  cleanliness ; but  it  is 
often  not  so  easy  to  decide  whether  that  condition  is  sufficiently 
poor  to  warrant  official  interference. 

Many  a person  accustomed  only  to  the  thorough  cleanliness 
of  a well-ordered  home  would  unhesitatingly  condemn  the  con- 
ditions encountered  in  nearly  all  the  cheaper  tenement  houses, 
and  would  set  up  a standard  which  is  at  present  entirely  im- 
practicable. A person  is  liable  to  receive  false  impressions, 
too,  in  his  examinations.  He  enters  a room  the  walls  and  ceil- 
ing of  which  are  begrimed,  as  though  from  years  of  neglect ; but 
they  may  have  been  whitened  within  a week,  and  their  discolor- 
ation be  due  to  the  smoke  from  burning  the  hoops  of  sugar 
casks,  and  various  other  rubbish,  which  many  of  the  people  pick 
up  along  the  docks  and  elsewhere.  A terrible  smell  per- 
vades the  room,  but  it  may  arise  simply  from  the  cooking ; 
some  of  the  dishes  prepared  by  the  Poles,  particularly,  giving  out 
most  obnoxious  odors.  The  room  is  untidy,  and  the  bare  floor 
littered  with  scraps  of  food  and  articles  of  clothing ; but  the 
presence  of  several  young  children  while  the  mother  is  busy 
with  washing  or  other  work  is  accountable  for  this,  and  later  in 
the  day  the  floor  may  be  found  well  scrubbed  or  swept,  and  the 
room  set  to  rights.  Now  there  are  many  such  cases,  in  which 
a person  will  be  greatly  repelled  by  what  he  perceives,  but  in 
which  the  influence  upon  health  of  the  conditions  noted  is  prob- 
ably very  small.  When,  however,  permanent  accumulations 
of  rags  are  found  littering  a room,  or  dirt  from  the  floor  is  found 
swept  into  piles  in  corners  or  behind  doors,  or  garbage  stored 


31 


away  in  closets  or  under  sinks,  or  the  paper  foul  and  rotten  on 
the  walls,  a state  of  things  has  been  discovered  which  will 
justify  interference. 

From  the  fact  that  the  interior  of  a house  is  not  conveniently 
open  to  observation,  and  that  considerable  time  is  required  for 
making  a tour  of  many  tenements,  the  inhabitants  of  which  are 
constantly  shifting  from  place  to  place,  it  is  plain  that  by  no 
practicable  system  of  house-to-house  inspection  could  much  be 
accomplished  in  the  way  of  maintaining  a general  high  standard 
of  cleanliness.  It  would  be  practicable,  however,  to  take 
account  of  those  places  deserving  special  oversight,  and  to  pre- 
vent the  long-continued  dwelling  of  a family  in  a state  of  filth. 

The  rating  of  a house  as  regards  its  cleanliness  is  an  arbitrary 
matter,  and  exact  figures  would  be  of  no  great  value  ; it  may  be 
well  enough,  though,  to  say  that  of  the  houses  reported  upon, 
an  average  of  about  one  in  seven  wTere  characterized  in  this 
particular  as  " poor  ; ” of  the  remainder  about  two-fifths  were 
classed  as  "good,”  and  the  rest  as  " fair.” 

For  various  reasons  the  cellar  is  closely  connected  with  the 
general  sanitary  condition  of  a house,  and  in  the  worst  tenement 
houses  the  dirty  and  negligent  habits  of  the  inmates  are  very 
apt  to  be  displayed  in  the  cellar,  which  therefore  especially  de- 
serves inspection.  In  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  of  the  houses 
examined,  the  cellars  were  found  badly  littered  with  garbage, 
occasionally  by  a dead  animal,  and  in  at  least  half  the  number 
by  human  excrement. 

Water-Closets  and  Privies. 

The  condition  of  water-closets  and  privies,  as  observed  dur- 
ing this  examination,  was,  in  a considerable  proportion  of  cases, 
extremely  objectionable.  The  problem  of  the  removal  of  house 
wastes  has  its  greatest  importance  in  connection  with  the  dis- 


32 


posal  of  the  dejections  from  the  human  body,  which  afford  the 
most  dangerous  possible  medium  for  the  spread  of  numerous 
infectious  diseases,  and  which,  aside  from  that,  may  easily 
become  a disgusting  and  unbearable  offence.  It  is  a cardinal 
sanitary  principle  that  animal  and  vegetable  matter  of  any  kind 
in  a state  favoring  decomposition  should  be  promptly  removed 
from  the  vicinity  of  dwellings,  certainly  within  a day  or  two, 
and  as  much  sooner  as  is  possible.  It  is  only  in  compara- 
tively recent  years,  however,  that  the  general  introduction  of 
running  water  within  the  houses,  supplemented  by  a system  of 
sewers  constituting  the  so-called  water-carriage  method  of  sew- 
age removal,  has  rendered  a prompt  conveyance  from  the  prem- 
ises of  urine  and  faeces  really  practicable ; and  even  now  it  is 
only  gradually  and  imperfectly  that  a proper  standard  is 
approached.  The  general  custom  in  the  past,  and  the  one  even 
now  in  use  in  considerable  portions  of  this  and  all  the  other  large 
cities,  has  been  to  store  fecal  matter  in  privy-vaults  or  cesspools. 

Dr.  O.  C.  DeWolf,  Commissioner  of  Health  of  Chicago,  in 
his  report  of  May,  1887,  estimates  that  fully  one- third  the  entire 
population  of  that  city  is  yet  dependent  upon  privy-vaults. 

In  Boston  several  different  constructions  of  vault  are  to  be 
found.  The  oldest  and  simplest  type  has  the  sides  and  bottom 
faced  with  planks,  and  has  no  outlet  save  through  the  top. 
Wooden  vaults  are  now  illegal,  however,  under  all  circum- 
stances, and  have  generally  been  replaced  by  other  construc- 
tions, although  more  or  less  of  them  appear  to  be  still  in 
existence.  By  a city  ordinance  of  1872  it  was  required  that 
henceforth  privy-vaults  should  be  constructed  of  brick  and 
cement.  The  brick  vaults  appear  to  have  been  usually  built 
tight,  or,  if  connected  by  a drain  with  the  street  sewer,  to  have 
become  in  time  practically  tight  through  the  stoppage  of  the 
imperfectly  flushed  outlets. 


33 


These  different  forms  have  thus  effected  a storage,  ranging  in 
duration  from  a few  months  to  perhaps  two  or  three  years, 
according  to  circumstances,  of  fecal  matters  supplied,  some- 
times, by  fifty  or  one  hundred  people  to  a single  vault.  The 
evil  results  inseparable  from  such  a practice,  aside  from  the 
mere  offence  occasioned  in  the  way  of  bad  odors,  have  led  to  a 
demand  for  the  abandonment  of  the  use  of  privies  and  cess- 
pools ; and  by  a State  act  of  1885  they  were  directed  to  be 
supplanted,  at  the  discretion  of  the  city  Board  of  Health,  by 
water-closets,  upon  all  streets  having  sewers.  In  accordance 
with  this  act  the  abolishment  of  privies  has  been  steadily  car- 
ried on,  and  in  the  two  and  one-half  years  since  the  passage  of 
the  act  down  to  the  close  of  1887,  about  3,400  privies  had 
been  removed.  This  work  seems  to  have  been  most  vigorously 
prosecuted  in  Wards  8 (West  End)  and  13  (South  Boston), 
in  each  of  which  there  have  been  more  removals  than  in  the  two 
North  End  Wards  6 and  7 together. 

The  practice  of  the  Board  of  Health  has  been,  I believe,  to 
abolish  privy-vaults  whenever  well-founded  complaint  has  been 
received,  either  through  the  inspectors  of  the  Board  or  from 
other  sources,  that  a vault  was  offensive.  In  spite  of  the  large 
number  of  vaults  already  done  away  with,  of  the  nine  hundred 
houses  inspected  under  my  direction  fully  a quarter  were  still 
dependent  upon  this  dangerous  system. 

Although  the  policy  has  been  pursued  of  doing  away  with 
privy-vaults,  the  Board  of  Health  has  thought  best  to  allow,  in 
certain  cases,  as  in  connection  with  large  tenement  houses  of  a 
low  grade,  the  use  of  an  improved  construction  known  as  a 
flush-vault.  It  is  a cemented  brick  vault,  with  an  outlet  at  the 

Vaults  abolished  in  certain  wards,  1885-87  : — 

Ward  6 . . . 84  I Ward  8 . . . 334  | Ward  12  . 114 

Ward  7 . . . 112  | Ward  9 . . 158  | Ward  13  132 


34 


bottom,  connecting  by  means  of  a tile  drain  with  the  street 
sewer.  A short  iron  pipe,  with  a flange  at  the  bottom,  a half 
turn  at  the  top,  and  a handle  reaching  up  nearly  to  the  floor  of 
the  privy  apartment,  serves  at  once  as  a removable  plug  to 
close  the  orifice  at  the  bottom  of  the  vault,  and  as  an  overflow 
after  the  vault  becomes  filled  to  a certain  level.  These  flush- 
vaults  receive  a supply  of  water  variously  from  sinks,  from 
roofs,  and  in  some  cases  from  special  service-pipes.  By  raising 
the  plug  the  contents  of  the  vault  are  permitted  to  run  rapidly 
out  to  the  street  sewer. 

These  vaults  have  an  advantage  over  the  old  ones  which  they 
displace,  only  in  so  far  as  they  offer  opportunity  for  frequent 
and  thorough  flushing,  and  it  is  evident  that  their  value  must, 
therefore,  be  dependent  upon  the  fidelity  with  which  that  is 
done.  It  is  assumed  that  they  will  be  flushed  every  two  or 
three  days,  but  in  many  cases  they  are  not  flushed  with  any 
such  frequency,  and  some  were  observed  which  had  not  been 
emptied  for  a very  long  time,  and  which  were  in  as  unsatis- 
factory a condition  as  any  ordinary  privy-vault.  The 
complaint  was  made  regarding  some  which  are  mainly  depend- 
ent on  rain-water  for  a flushing  supply,  that  they  are  liable  to 
be  deprived  of  this  for  a long  time  in  summer  droughts,  and 
that  when  the  rain  does  come  it  stirs  up  the  contents  of  the 
vault  so  that  a doubly  offensive  smell  is  given  off.  Yet,  in 
spite  of  its  defects,  this  construction  probably  offers,  in  certain 
cases,  the  best  solution  of  a difficult  problem. 

Although  privy  vaults  and  cesspools  are  objectionable,  it 
must  not  be  assumed  that,  when  they  have  been  replaced  by 
water-closets,  the  question  of  the  removal  of  the  most  dangerous 
form  of  house  sewage  has  been  satisfactorily  settled.  Water- 
closets  are  a good  contrivance  when  kept  clean  and  inoffensive  ; 
in  other  words,  when  properly  flushed  and  decently  used. 


35 


But  both  of  these  essential  conditions  are  dependent  upon  the 
habits  of  the  people  who  use  the  closets,  and  among  the  popu- 
lation with  which  we  have  to  deal  there  are  many  whose  habits 
are  of  the  most  careless  and  filthy  nature. 

It  is  plainly  important  then,  that,  as  regards  construction,  the 
closet  used  in  tenement  houses  should  be  of  the  simplest  pos- 
sible form,  with  a smooth  and  durable  inner  surface,  and  a 
thoroughly  efficient  flush.  There  is  nothing  in  such  require- 
ments involving  unreasonable  expense,  but  it  is  almost  unneces- 
sary to  say  that  we  do  not  find  them  generally  met  in  the 
houses  we  inspect.  Many  of  the  closets  have  bowls  of  iron 
coated  with  enamel,  or  at  least  the  iron  was  once  so  coated; 
but  the  enamel  has  generally  scaled  off,  and  the  iron  surface 
remains  in  such  a rough,  corroded,  and  foul  condition  that 
really  thorough  cleansing  is  impossible. 

Even  if  cleansing  were  possible,  the  arrangement  for  flush- 
ing is  usually  inadequate.  Of  some  350  water-closets  whose 
mode  of  flushing  was  especially  reported,  about  60  per  cent, 
were  flushed  by  direct  connection  with  service-pipe.  In  most 
such  cases  the  force  of  the  flushing  stream  is  small  and  poorly 
directed.  Furthermore,  there  is  a possible  danger,  not  com- 
monly considered,  of  an  occasional  contamination  of  the  water 
in  the  service-pipes  if  the  flush-valve  happens  to  be  left  open 
at  a time  when  the  supply  of  water  is  for  any  reason  tem- 
porarily shut  off. 

A dozen  water-closets  were  reported,  half  of  them  in  tene- 
ment houses  as  legally  defined,  whose  only  contrivance  for 
flushing  consisted  of  untrapped  wraste-pipes  from  sinks,  and 
half  a dozen  more  which  were  flushed  only  by  trapped  waste- 
pipes.  All  these  closets  were  naturally  found  very  foul, 
and  it  is  hard  to  conceive  of  any  more  miserable  arrangement 
than  that  mentioned,  the  only  excuses  for  which  are  that  some 


36 


expense  is  saved  in  construction,  and  that  the  annual  water-rate 
for  a closet  supply  is  avoided.  Thirty  closets  were  returned 
as  out  of  order,  a few  on  account  of  the  outlet  having  become 
clogged,  but  most  because  some  part  of  the  flushing  apparatus 
had  been  broken. 

A much  more  glaring  evil,  however,  and  one  of  probably 
much  more  consequence  than  most  of  the  defects  that  have  been 
mentioned,  is  found  in  the  filthy  condition  of  the  seats  and 
apartments  of  many  of  the  privies  and  water-closets.  Of 
about  six  hundred  water-closets  that  were  reported  upon,  nearly 
one  hundred  were  declared  to  be  in  a filthy  condition ; and  by 
this  was  meant,  not  simply  that  the  closet  bowls  were  dirty, 
but  that  the  seat  and  apartment  were  so  fouled  that  they  could 
not  be  decently  used.  Some  of  these  places  were  in  a most 
abominable  state.  No  cleanly  person  could  be  induced  to  go 
near  them.  Indeed,  the  tenants  themselves  do  not  go  nearer 
than  absolutely  necessary.  Faeces  and  urine  are  temporarily 
stored  in  the  living-rooms  in  vessels  and  buckets,  and  at  con- 
venient opportunity  these  are  taken  to  be  emptied.  The  door 
of  the  water-closet  apartment  having  been  opened,  the  contents 
of  the  bucket  are  given  a throw  toward  the  bowl,  wThich  thus 
serves  simply  as  a slop-hopper,  while  the  whole  place  is 
befouled  in  the  most  disgusting  way. 

The  fault  lies  directly,  of  course,  with  the  people  who  have  the 
use  of  the  closet  or  privy.  Not  all  of  these  are  equally  to  be 
blamed,  though,  for  sometimes  the  filthiness  of  a single  family 
offsets  the  cleanly  habits  of  all  the  rest  of  the  house.  Often  it  is 
the  case  that  water-closet  or  privy  apartments  in  tenement  houses 
are  not  properly  protected  by  lock  and  key,  but  are  accessible  to 
the  drunken  loafers  froixi  neighboring  saloons  and  the  streets. 
An  indirect  cause  also  for  the  conditions  that  have  been  mentioned 
lies  in  the  improper  location  of  many  of  the  water-closets,  which 


are  in  dark  corners  .or  inner  closets  in  cellar  or  basement, 
where  nothing  can  be  seen  except  by  artificial  light,  and  where 
also  no  suitable  means  of  ventilation  exist.  Light  is  absolutely 
essential  to  cleanliness  in  such  places,  and  should  be  secured  in 
every  possible  case. 

Frequently  it  will  be  found  that  tenement  houses  are  not  pro- 
vided with  a suitable  number  of  water-closets  or  privies  for  the 
convenience  of  their  many  occupants.  The  proper  number  to 
be  required  is  a matter  of  judgment,  but  the  minimum  limit  has 
frequently  been  placed  at  about  one  for  every  twenty  persons. 
The  present  New  York  law  regarding  tenement  and  lodging 
houses  requires  them  to  be  provided  with  as  many  water- 
closets  as  the  Board  of  Health  shall  specify  ; but  the  number 
is,  in  any  case,  to  be  not  less  than  one  for  every  fifteen 
occupants  in  lodging  houses  and  not  less  than  one  for  every 
two  families  in  dwelling  houses.  The  Statute  Law  of  1871 
required  that  in  Boston  the  number  of  closets  should  be  not 
less  than  one  for  every  twenty  occupants  of  a tenement  or 
lodging  house.  The  law  of  1885  places  the  decision  of  the 
proper  and  requisite  number  of  closets  with  the  Board  of  Health, 
but  now  makes  the  curious  exception  that  the  board  shall  not 
require  more  than  one  for  every  twenty  persons.  This  ap- 
pears to  be  grantinga  pretty  wide  discretion  outside  of  the  limits 
within  which  it  is  needed. 

In  an  Italian  tenement  house  at  No.  — Friend  street,  a 
filthy  little  room  with  no  ventilation  or  lighting  worthy  the  name, 
the  seats  and  apartment  in  a vile  state,  was  found  to  provide 
two  water-closet  bowls  for  between  sixty  and  seventy  occupants 
of  the  house. 

At  No.  — Anderson  street  is  a little  court.  Here  a single 
water-closet  in  a small  shed,  the  bowl  full  and  in  an  abominable 
condition,  was  the  only  accommodation  in  this  line  for  eight  or 


38 


ten  families  of  colored  people,  besides  the  hands  in  a stable  and 
a couple  of  little  shops. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  law  doing  away  with  privies 
allows  their  continuance  upon  streets  not  having  sewers.  There 
are  many  little  courts,  alleys,  and  so-called  avenues  which  ap- 
pear to  come  under  this  exception,  made  presumably  for  the 
purpose  of  sparing  the  expense  of  long  branch  sewers  or  drains. 
As  a rule,  I think  the  removal  of  privies  from  these  localities  is 
more  essential  than  from  almost  any  other  situation,  and  it  is 
unfortunate  that  excuse  should  be  found  for  excepting  them. 
The  houses  will  certainly  have  to  be  drained  at  some  time,  and 
it  would  appear  as  though  but  moderate  expense  would  be  in- 
volved in  conveying  away  water-closet  drainage  in  small  drains 
placed  at  shallow  depth  and  running  to  the  nearest  public 
sewer. 

Drainage  of  the  Houses. 

A great  part  of  the  drainage  system  of  most  houses  is  so  in- 
accessible that  it  is  difficult  to  learn  much  regarding  its  con- 
struction. Soil  and  waste  pipes  are  concealed  in  walls,  and 
drains  are  often  out  of  sight  under  cellar-bottoms,  and  in  order 
to  reach  them  liberties  must  be  taken  which  would  hardly  be 
warranted  in  a private  inspection.  A lack  of  tightness,  even 
when  joints  are  concealed,  may  often  be  discovered  by  testing 
with  peppermint,  and  this  test  was  frequently,  but  not  regularly, 
applied. 

It  is  evident  that,  under  the  requirements  of  the  Board  of 
Health  and  the  Inspector  of  Buildings,  the  drainage  of  the  tene- 
ment houses  has  much  improved  from  the  condition  that  must 
have  existed  perhaps  no  more  than  ten  years  ago.  The  number 
of  well-constructed  iron  drains  is  much  larger  than  would  be 


39 


supposed,  and  occasionally  we  find  tenement  houses  with  an 
admirable  system  of  pipes  and  fixtures  throughout.  In  portions 
of  the  8th  ward,  on  Nashua  street,  for  example,  where  within  a 
couple  of  years  many  privies  have  been  abolished,  I frequently 
found  the  latter  replaced  by  water-closets  of  good  type,  thor- 
oughly flushed  and  ventilated,  and  in  every  way  satisfactory. 
In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  done,  however,  a surprising  number 
of  defects  of  great  variety  are  encountered.  These  are  such  as 
might  naturally  be  supposed  to  exist  in  the  absence  of  complete 
and  systematic  inspection,  and  are  variously  due  to  the  survival 
of  antiquated  and  inferior  work,  which  has  fallen  out  of  repair, 
and  the  design  of  which  is  not  in  accordance  with  present  stand- 
ards ; to  cheap  and  poor  construction  of  more  recent  date  ; and 
to  the  negligence  and  ignorance  of  tenants  and  landlords. 
Occasionally  a drain-trap  was  found  with  the  clean-out  cap  re- 
moved and  lost,  so  that  sewer  air  had  free  access  to  the  house  ; 
or  an  old  pipe,  with  sewer  connection,  cut  off,  but  left  open ; 
sink-drainage  carried  through  cellars  in  open  and  sometimes 
dilapidated  and  leaky  wooden  troughs ; old  wooden  box-drains 
running  just  under  the  cellar-bottom,  sometimes  clogged,  again 
free,  but  uncovered  and  rotted  away  so  that  the  current  within 
was  open  to  view ; pipes  imperfectly  joined,  or  with  soft  and 
destructible  material,  or  even  with  one  pipe  merely  thrust  into 
the  open  end  of  the  other.  All  these  and  other  defects  were 
repeatedly  observed. 

The  drainage  system  of  the  poorer  tenement  houses  is  not 
elaborate.  A vertical  main  pipe,  starting  at  the  upper  fix- 
ture, receives  the  branches  from  the  sinks  and  water  closet  or 
closets,  and,  on  reaching  the  cellar,  runs  nearly  horizontally  as 
the  house  drain,  passing  on  to  the  street  sewer.  Scarcely  one 
in  five  hundred  of  these  houses  contains  a bath-tub  or  wash- 
bowl, or  any  other  variety  of  fixtures  than  those  mentioned. 


40 


Some,  indeed,  contain  no  running  water,  and  no  plumbing- fix- 
tures of  any  description  ; but  they  are  quite  exceptional. 

One  evil  which  is  very  common,  and  which  seems  to  me  a 
serious  one,  is  the  omission  to  supply  the  waste-pipes  of  sinks 
with  traps.  Of  more  than  2,000  sinks  which  were  examined 
by  my  inspectors,  60  per  cent,  were  found  to  be  not  individ- 
ually trapped.  Of  these,  only  1,000  wTere  in  tenement  houses  as 
defined  by  law,  and  yet  precisely  the  same  percentage  of  this 
number  proved  to  be  without  traps.  It  was  frequently  noticed 
that  although,  upon  examining  sinks,  no  traps  were  to  be 
seen,  yet  the  tenants  claimed  that  their  sinks  were  trapped, 
and  that  they  had  been  so  informed  by  city  inspectors.  In 
such  cases  it  would  be  discovered  that  there  was  a trap  upon 
the  main  drain,  often  directly  at  the  foot  of  the  vertical  main 
waste-pipe,  that  being  the  only  trap  upon  the  entire  waste- 
pipe  system.  Such  an  arrangement  does,  it  is  true,  serve 
to  disconnect  the  house  pipes  from  the  public  sewer ; but 
it  does  not  serve  to  disconnect  the  different  floors  and  tene- 
ments from  each  other.  If  nothing  but  clean  water  were 
poured  down  the  sink  waste-pipes,  the  plan  might  answer 
well  enough.  Bqt,  unfortunately,  that  is  not  the  case.  Even 
with  decent  use  of  a sink  a great  deal  of  animal  and  vegetable 
matter  is  carried  along  in  the  waste  water,  which  coats  and 
fouls  the  pipes.  But,  far  worse  than  this,  the  sinks  are  liable 
to  be  used,  and  frequently  are  used,  by  a low  class  of  tenants, 
as  a means  of  getting  rid  of  chamber-slops.  The  practice 
happened  in  two  or  three  instances  to  be  actually  observed  by 
my  assistants,  was  acknowledged  in  others,  and  in  numerous 
others  was  the  subject  of  bitter  complaint  from  tenants.  All 
the  sinks  in  a house,  and  especially  those  below  the  offending 
tenants,  are  liable  thus  to  be  rendered  offensive  at  times. 
Repeatedly  I have  happened  to  be  in  kitchens  when  waste 


41 


water,  doubtless  chamber-slops,  was  sent  down  the  main  waste- 
pipe  from  some  sink  above,  and  the  odor  that  was  forced  out 
into  the  room  was  unmistakable  in  character,  and  was  most 
sickening.  I noticed  frequently  that  tenants  had  placed  wet 
cloths,  pans,  saucers,  or  other  rude  contrivances  over  the  sink- 
strainers  in  an  attempt  to  keep  back  the  vile  stench. 

I do  not  find  any  law  or  ordinance  directly  bearing  upon  this 
matter  of  traps  upon  sinks,  except  that  in  a section  of  the  City 
Ordinances  for  the  Regulation  of  Plumbing,  such  traps  are  re- 
quired for  work  performed  after  March,  1883.  I am  aware, 
however,  that  the  Board  of  Health  assumes  to  require  the  plac- 
ing of  traps  upon  such  sinks  as  are  complained  of  and  decided 
to  be  offensive.  An  excuse  has  been  given  for  the  construction 
that  has  been  described,  that,  in  many  cases,  it  is  better  not  to 
have  traps  for  the  sinks,  inasmuch  as  tenants  sometimes  sift 
ashes  into  the  latter,  and  the  traps  become  clogged  ; but  I do 
not  feel  that  very  much  weight  should  be  given  to  that  con- 
sideration. It  seems  to  me  very  unsafe  to  allow  an  open 
connection  through  waste-pipes  between  different  tenements, 
and  desirable  indeed  that  every  waste-pipe  should  have  a trap 
closely  beneath  its  fixture.  I am  confident  that  the  practice 
of  allowing  a single  trap  on  a main  pipe  to  answer  for  the  whole 
system  of  the  house  cannot  be  successfully  defended,  and  ought 
to  be  abolished. 

Further,  if  the  practice  is  permitted,  then  the  most  wretched 
plumbing-work  may  consistently  be  allowed  for  all  the  drainage 
system  above  the  main  trap.  If  there  is  to  be  a free  outlet  for 
foul  air  through  every  sink,  of  what  consequence  is  it  whether 
the  pipes  are  made  tight  anywhere,  beyond  what  is  necessary 
to  prevent  the  leakage  of  water?  In  between  forty  and  fifty 
cases  we  found  the  sink  waste-pipes  simply  stuck  in  to  the  open 
end  or  branch  of  the  larger  main  pipe,  without  any  pretence  of 


42 


a tight  connection.  In  fact,  it  was  amusing  to  notice  that  in 
several  cases  sink- wastes  had  been  provided  with  good  traps, 
and  then,  beyond  these,  was  the  open  connection,  rendering  the 
trap  itself  entirely  valueless. 

The  specified  requirements  of  the  law  of  1871,  regarding  the 
cleanliness  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses,  together  with  the 
general  powers  belonging  to  the  Board  of  Health,  apparently 
furnish  sufficient  authority  for  coping  with  some  of  the  grosser* 
evils  noticed  in  connection  with  the  drainage  system  of  tene- 
ment and  lodging  houses,  such  as  a filthy  condition  of  fixtures, 
or  defects  of  drainage  of  such  importance  as  to  give  rise  to  un- 
doubted nuisances.  But,  in  order  that  the  whole  problem  may 
be  satisfactorily  dealt  with,  I am  of  opinion  that  the  Board  of 
Health  should  have  power  concerning  the  entire  house  drainage 
system  proper,  and  the  connecting  fixtures,  to  establish  such 
detailed  regulations,  and  to  exercise  such  discretion  as  it  may 
deem  wise,  whether  it  be  as  to  material,  or  arrangement,  or  con- 
struction, or  any  other  particular.  A successful  grappling  with 
this  question  demands  attention  to  details  which  it  is  useless  to 
attempt  to  comprise  in  specific  laws  of  universal  application, 
but  which  should  be  left  to  the  judgment  of  proper  and  compe- 
tent authorities. 

Abstracts  of  Inspectors’  Reports. 

The  following  brief  abstracts  from  inspectors’  reports  will 
serve  to  illustrate  some  of  the  various  conditions  wffiich  were 
encountered  in  our  examinations  : — 

Ward  6.  No.  — North  street.  Nine  families,  mainly  Ita- 
lians, with  numerous  lodgers.  Altogether,  some  sixty  persons, 
for  whom  there  is  but  a single  water-closet ; this  is  in  the  cellar, 
inconvenient  for  the  tenants,  but  accessible  to  street  loafers, 


43 


and  was  found  out  of  repair  and  very  filthy.  Hallway  and  cellar 
stairs  also  filthy.  Nearly  all  sleeping-rooms  in  the  house  badly 
overcrowded. 

Ward  6.  No.  — Salutation  street.  Broken  drain  in  cellar, 
’ and  pool  of  sewage,  which  was  stated  to  have  been  standing  as 
found  for  two  months,  causing  smell  which  was  noticeable  to 
the  top  of  the  house. 

Ward  6.  No.  — Salutation  street.  Cellar  very  damp ; 
planking  rotten  and  mildewed.  Water-closet  in  cellar  filthy, 
and  so  offensive  that  tenants  on  floor  above  could  not  use  cham- 
ber which  was  directly  over  the  closet,  but  the  whole  family  of 
six  persons  slept  in  their  only  remaining  chamber.  Sinks  on 
four  floors,  none  of  them  trapped,  and  those  on  the  three  lower 
floors  frequently  rendered  offensive  by  the  pouring  of  foul  slops 
into  the  upper  sink. 

Ward  6.  No.  — North  street.  Cellar  used  by  Italians  for 
storage  of  fruit,  fish,,  cheese,  etc.  In  this  cellar  a hole  had 
been  roughly  broken  into  the  iron  drain,  so  that  into  this  hole, 
which  gave  free  exit  for  drain  air  into  the  cellar,  might  be 
thrust  the  end  of  a drip-pipe  from  the  bar  of  a neighboring 
saloon. 

Ward  6.  No.  — Commercial  street.  Rear  cellar,  dark  and 
unventilated, flooded  with  sewage,  which  had  overflowed  at  a bad 
break  in  the  drain.  The  drain,  which  was  of  earthenware,  was 
leaky  at  other  points  also.  Tenants  had  noticed  stench  from 
cellar,  and  condition  was  judged  to  have  been  for  months  as 
described. 

Ward  7.  No.  — South  Margin  street.  Three  tenements. 
Family  of  three  adults  and  five  children  sleeping  in  one  room. 
House  in  poor  repair  from  top  to  bottom  ; ceilings  discolored, 
plaster  falling,  windows  broken,  stairs  rickety,  and  so  on. 

Ward  7.  No.  — Endicott  street.  House  occupied  by  nine 


44 


families.  Nearly  all  the  sleeping-rooms  overcrowded ; in  one 
tenement  six  persons  sleeping  on  the  kitchen  floor.  Sinks 
trapped,  but  the  plumbing-work  poor  and  leaky,  and  some  of 
the  sinks  very  foul  and  offensive  to  the  smell.  Halls  dark  and 
unventilated.  Cellar  damp  from  leakage  of  water  through 
walls  and  from  defective  drainage-pipes.  As  many  as  ten 
drunken  men  at  a time  said  to  have  been  seen  asleep  in  this 
cellar  ; one  corner  of  the  cellar  covered  with  fecal  matter.  Said 
to  have  been  much  sickness  in  the  house. 

Ward  8.  No.  — Porcelain  place.  Said  to  have  been  three 
cases  of  diphtheria  and  two  of  scarlet  fever  in  the  house  within 
a year.  Drainage  defective.  Brick  cesspool-trap  in  cellar, 
with  some  of  the  bricks  fallen  out  so  that  the  sewage  could  be 
plainly  seen  and  smelled. 

Ward  8.  No.  — Nashua  street.  Flush  vault  (poorly  cared 
for)  built  directly  against  ell,  and  directly  under  and  within  a 
few  feet  of  sleeping- room  windows.  Plumbing-work  in  house 
very  poor,  and  sinks  not  trapped. 

Ward  8.  No.  — Cushman  avenue.  Water-closet  bowl  in 
cellar  broken  away  from  trap,  and  in  consequence  matter  dis- 
charged mainly  upon  the  cellar-bottom,  which  was  very  filthy. 

Ward  9.  No.  — Bridge  court.  Occupied  by  Italians.  On 
second  floor,  a man,  wife,  her  three  brothers  and  three  children 
occupy  three  rooms.  A man,  wife,  and  two  children  have  two 
rooms.  On  the  third  floor  a family  comprising  three  men, 
a woman,  and  two  children  has  a kitchen  and  two  bedrooms. 
In  the  attic  a man,  wife,  and  baby  occupy  two  rooms. 

Ward  12.  Quiet  alley.  Four  houses  inspected,  in  which  a 
considerable  proportion  of  the  inmates  were  found  drunk.  Two 
privy  apartments  served  for  some  eighteen  families,  and  were  in 
the  vilest  possible  condition  ; the  vault  of  one  ■was  full  and  over- 
flowing on  to  the  floor.  Most  of  the  sleeping-rooms  small, 


‘3S  Tmou&^Lcriuoo  — oj\T  ‘ 


L/&Z&M  p&JpDOS'  'punouf) 


-street  Place  (Quiet  Alley),  Boston.  Arranged 
for  Five  Families  on  a Floor. 


Streec  _ _ 


II  yoy 

ilWVCRSI? , o/jLlfvqf<5( 


45 


overcrowded,  and  without  windows  to  the  outer  air.  Plumbing 
of  the  poorest  description,  and  sinks  not  trapped ; some  of 
the  sink  outlets  had  become  stopped  up,  and  waste  water  was 
thrown  out  of  windows  on  to  a shed  roof,  which  was  also  littered 
with  garbage. 

Ward  12.  No.  — Cove  street.  Six  families.  First-floor 
rooms  very  dirty.  Sleeping-room  of  5x6x8  feet,  nearly 
filled  by  the  bed,  and  with  no  ventilation  except  by  the  door, 
used  by  lodgers.  This  and  another  room  of  the  same  description 
opened  in  common  into  the  kitchen.  Eight  persons  sleeping  in 
three  small  connecting  rooms  on  the  fourth  floor,  the  three 
rooms  together  equivalent  to  one  fair-sized  room. 

Ward  13.  No. — Bolton  street.  Six  families.  Only  one  sleep- 
ing-room afforded  its  occupants  more  than  two  hundred  cubic 
feet  of  space  to  a person.  Four  sinks  in  the  house,  none  of  them 
trapped.  Vertical  main  waste-pipe  of  iron,  with  trap  at  its  foot 
in  the  cellar,  but  clean-out  cap  gone  from  the  trap ; sewer  end 
of  trap  thrust  into  open  length  of  pipe,  and  this  in  turn  into 
wooden  drain  so  rotted  away  that  sewage  within  was  plainly 
exposed  to  view.  Same  conditions  found  in  the  cellar  of  the 
adjoining  house.  Cellar  fouled  with  excreta. 

Ward  13.  No.  — C street.  Bain-leader  broken  in  cellar, 
and  latter  flooded  after  storms.  Sink  trapped,  but  trap  rendered 
of  no  value  by  having  sewer  end  merely  thrust  into  open  branch 
of  main  waste-pipe. 

Ward  13.  No.  — Colony  street.  Two  persons  sleeping  in 
small  room  in  cellar,  dark  and  practically  unventilated. 

Statistics  of  Disease. 

In  connection  with  an  attempt  to  improve,  through  the  pre- 
liminary means  of  an  investigation,  the  sanitary  condition  of  the 
tenement-house  districts,  it  is  certainly  well  to  look  into  the 


46 


real  facts  of  the  case  as  to  the  prevalence  of  certain  diseases. 
Unfortunately,  so  far  as  published  statistics  are  concerned,  we 
cannot  identify  the  tenement-house  districts,  but  must  in  the 
main  draw  our  own  inferences  from  data  presented  for  the  city 
as  a whole.  It  would  be  of  great  advantage  on  many  accounts 
if  here,  as  in  London,  England,  the  city  were  divided  in  the 
matter  of  statistics  into  certain  suitably  outlined  sanitary  dis- 
tricts of  like  distinguishing  features. 

The  zymotic  diseases  are  the  ones  commonly  spoken  of  as 
preventable  ; and  those  chiefly  prevailing  in  Boston  of  late  years 
have  been  the  group  of  diarrhoeal  diseases  of  which  cholera 
infantum  is  the  most  prominent,  diphtheria  and  croup,  typhoid 
fever,  and  scarlet  fever.  These  together  have  been  accountable 
in  the  past  ten  years  for  four-fifths  of  all  the  deaths  due  to 
zymotic  diseases.1 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  statistics  of  disease  commonly 
published  deal  with  deaths  only,  and  give  no  information  as  to 
the  cases  of  sickness  not  fatal,  although  these  greatly  outnum- 
ber the  former,  and  should  be  taken  into  account  in  forming  an 
opinion  upon  the  prevalence  of  disease.  For  the  three  common 
diseases,  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  and  typhoid  fever,  we  have, 
however,  data  for  the  city  of  Boston  which  show  for  the  five 
years,  1883-87,  a total  of  3,505  deaths,  while  the  reported  cases 
numbered  18,780,  or  more  than  five  times  as  many.  That  the 
cases  of  sickness  which  are  not  often  publicly  reported,  and 
which  involve  an  immense  loss  of  labor,  great  direct  expense, 


1 10  years,  1878-87 : — 

Total  deaths,  all  causes 89,897 

Total  deaths,  zyraotics 21,280 

Diarrhoeal  diseases 8,452 

Diphtheria  and  croup 5,652 

Typhoid  fever 1,696 

Scarlet  fever 1,212 


47 


and  untold  misery,  so  largely  outnumber  the  deaths,  is  a fact 
important  to  consider  if  we  are  to  appreciate  the  evil  of  allow- 
ing preventable  diseases  to  go  unchecked. 

The  zymotic  diseases  are  termed  preventable  because  so 
largely  dependent  upon  conditions  within  control.  Consump- 
tion is  not  classed  as  preventable,  and  yet  we  must  not  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  this  disease,  which  in  the  past  five  years, 
for  example,  has  carried  off  in  this  city  very  nearly  three-quar- 
ters as  many  persons  as  all  the  zymotic  diseases  together,  is 
largely  promoted  by  dampness  and  by  foul  air,  — the  latter  so 
characteristic  of  densely  crowded  tenement  houses, — and  has 
even  been  found,  in  certain  famous  experiments,  to  be  infec- 
tious, and  hence  capable  of  transmission  from  one  person  to 
another,  just  as  diphtheria  and  scarlet  fever  may  be  thus 
transmitted ; in  other  words,  that  it  is,  to  a greater  or  less  ex- 
tent, a preventable  disease. 

A short  examination  of  published  returns  shows  what  is,  I 
think,  understood  by  most  persons,  — that  it  is  yery  young  chil- 
dren who  suffer  most  from  the  preventable  diseases.  Looking 
at  the  figures  for  the  past  three  years  only,  we  find  that  of  the 
total  mortality  from  such  diseases,  very  nearly  two-thirds  was  of 
children  under  five  years  of  age  and  yet  children  of  that  age 
constitute  scarcely  one-tenth  of  the  total  population  of  Boston. 

1 Mortality  in  Boston,  1885-87. 


Under  5 years. 

Total  deaths. 

Zymotics. 

Sundry  causes. 

1885 

3,466 

1,201 

2,265 

1886 

3,186 

1,079 

2,107 

1887 

3,662 

1,328 

2,334 

10,314 

3,608 

6,706 

All  ages. 

1885 

9,618 

1,879 

7,739 

1886 

9,268 

1,644 

7,624 

1887 

10,073 

1,993 

8,080 

28,959 

5,516 

23,443 

48 


A study  of  the  Board-of-Health  returns  for  the  past  seventeen 
years  shows  the  total  death-rate  of  the  city  — that  is  to  say,  the 
annual  number  of  deaths,  from  all  causes,  per  thousand  of  pop- 
ulation— to  have  ranged  as  high  as  .above  30,  and  as  low  as  be- 
tween 20  and  21 ; and  yet,  on  the  whole,  no  material,  perma- 
nent change  is  apparent,  for  either  better  or  worse ; and  the 
rate  clings  to  figures  comparing  unfavorably  with  those  for 
numerous  of  the  largest  American  cities. 

If  now  we  look  to  see  what  proportion  of  the  total  deaths 
has  been  due  to  zymotic  diseases,  we  shall  find  that  in  a series 
of  years  it  has  ranged  as  high  as  about  35  per  cent.,  and  as  low 
as  somewhat  under  18  per  cent.  It  is  more  important  to  know 
that  the  higher  rate  was  reached  far  back  in  1872,  and  that 
since  that  time  there  has  been  an  irregular,  but  on  the  whole  a 
marked  and  well-maintained,  decline.  It  is  still  further  inter- 
esting to  notice  that  while  for  the  seven  years,  1877-83,  this 
decline  in  the  zymotic  rate  appeared  to  have  come  substantially 
to  a standstill,  yet  in  1884,  which  was  the  first  year  in  the  use 
of  the  Improved  Sewerage  System,  the  decline  began  afresh, 
and  in  the  three  years,  1884-86,  there  was  a uniform  and  re- 
markable decline  from  26.2  to  17.7  per  cent,  in  the  proportion 
of  deaths  from  zymotic  diseases. 


Conditions  Essential  to  Improvement. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  there  has  been  made  in  this  city  a 
very  encouraging  advance  in  the  prevention  of  a certain  class 
of  diseases  ; and  this  advance  may  fairly  be  ascribed  to  the  im- 
proved sanitary  conditions  which  have  been  established  mainly 
through  public  action.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  the  ad- 
vance which  has  been  noted  should  not  be  pushed  much  farther 
yet.  It  is  not  to  be  expected,  however,  that  an  improvement 


YEAR  a> 


- ro  n 
CO  O ““ 


8 g 


ru  ro  ro 
> Cn  O' 


po  ro 

>1  CD 


w U u 

to  O — • 


CO 

ro 


CO  CO  Co 
w + OI 


per  cent 


UNiv£Rsii.  of  Illinois, 


49 


of  this  sort  is  to  go  forward  constantly  with  great  speed  or 
without  occasional  set-backs.  Injurious  methods  of  tenement- 
house  life,  and  defective  systems  for  disposing  of  the  danger- 
ous wastes  of  a great  city,  which  have  existed  for  many  years, 
cannot  be  overturned  in  a day.  Certain  things  seem  essential 
to  our  proper  protection  against  the  preventable  or  filth  dis- 
eases. We  must  have  the  strict  enforcement  of  reasonable  san- 
itary precautions  within  and  about  the  houses.  We  must  have 
a well-designed,  well-constructed,  and  well-maintained  system 
of  branch  and  main  sewers,  reenforced  by  an  efficient  system 
for  the  collection  and  removal  of  solid  filth,  garbage,  and  wastes 
from  the  streets  and  private  premises,  — these  two  systems  to- 
gether serving  to  cleanse  the  city  of  foul  waste  matter.  And, 
finally,  there  must  be  a suitable  disposal  of  the  wastes  col- 
lected. 

At  the  present  time  all  these  conditions  are  fulfilled  in  part. 
The  houses  and  premises  of  the  citizens  are  expected  to  meet 
certain  requirements,  and  are  subject  to  supervision  to  some 
extent ; but,  as  I have  attempted  to  show  elsewhere,  this  super- 
vision is  not  sufficiently  systematic  or  complete.  We  have  a 
new  and  valuable  system  of  main  sewers  for  a part  of  the  city, 
and  connected  with  them  a large  proportion  of  good  branch 
sewers  ; and  yet  there  are  very  many  branch  sewers,  especially 
in  the  tenement-house  part  of  the  city,  which  are  unfit  for  their 
purpose.  For  the  removal  of  solid  filth  collected  above  ground 
a system  is  employed  which,  while  not  perfect,  ranks  very  high 
as  compared  with  the  methods  in  use  in  most  large  cities. 
And,  finally,  by  the  introduction  of  the  Improved  Sewerage  Sys- 
tem, the  dangerous  method  of  finally  disposing  of  the  sewage 
of  the  city  formerly  in  use  has  been  supplanted  by  one  that  is 
convenient  and  safe. 

Each  of'  the  agencies  which  has  been  mentioned  for  maintain- 


50 


ing  a good  sanitary  condition  within  the  city  is  important,  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  at  the  present  time  none  offers  greater 
opportunity  for  advance  than  a close  attention  to  the  immediate 
surroundings  and  the  interior  of  the  houses  themselves.  There 
are  few  streets  that  are  so  likely  to  become  dangerously  littered 
or  saturated  with  filth  as  are  many  of  the  yards  and  alleys, 
unless  these  are  looked  after  sharply  ; and  although  a sewer  may 
become  foul,  yet  it  is  mainly  through  faults  lying  within  the 
house,  in  its  drainage  system,  that  the  foul  sewer  air  comes 
into  dangerous  proximity  to  human  beings.  Moreover,  even  if 
everything  be  right  with  streets,  sewers,  yards,  and  alleys,  there 
are  many  objectionable  and  unsafe  conditions  which  may  exist 
for  a long  time  within  a house,  unless  some  one  be  held  respon- 
sible for  their  discovery  and  remedy. 

The  pipes  of  the  house-drainage  system  become  coated,  and 
often  give  rise  to  just  as  foul  emanations  as  come  from  a sewer ; 
and  when,  as  in  many  tenement  houses,  there  is  unbroken  com- 
munication, through  the  waste-pipes,  between  different  tene- 
ments, there  is  an  opportunity  for  the  interchange  of  infection 
similar  to  that  afforded  by  unbroken  connection  between  house 
and  sewer. 

Then,  too,  through  the  surprising  negligence  and  callousness 
of  certain  grades  of  tenants,  what  most  people  would  consider 
intolerable  nuisances  are  permitted  to  exist  indefinitely.  As 
examples  of  these,  my  inspectors  reported  : a dead  cat  found  on  a 
front-stair  landing,  appearing  to  have  been  there  a long  time  ; 
a dead  cat  in  a cellar,  the  carcass  having  nearly  rotted  away ; a 
bushel  of  decayed  tomatoes  in  a cellar ; a pail  of  garbage  far 
gone  in  decay,  found  under  a sink ; apparently  the  same  pail  of 
garbage  there  nearly  three  months  afterwards,  the  pail  drop- 
ping to  pieces.  It  is  true  that- under  any  practicable  system  of 
house  inspection  more  or  less  such  instances  as  these  would  be 


51 


^encountered  ; nevertheless,  I am  confident  that  the  total  number 
of  defects,  especially  those  of  a somewhat  permanent  character, 
would  be  greatly  reduced. 

In  his  report  for  1885,  the  Commissioner  of  Health  of  Chi- 
cago, in  which  city  a comprehensive  system  of  tenement-house 
and  factory  inspection  is  in  operation,  says,  " The  character  and 
importance  of  this  work  as  the  basis  for  a sound  and  permanent 
sanitary  advance,  and  its  performance,  imperfect  as  it  still  is, 
has  been  so  largely  instrumental  in  steadily  decreasing  our 
death-rate,  . . . that  I propose  to  review  at  length  the  facts 
presented  by  the  Registrar  of  Vital  Statistics,  and  to  point  out 
the  results  which  I believe  may  be  justly  attributed  to  this 
intimate  sanitary  supervision  of  the  homes  and  places  of  labor 
of  our  citizens.” 

In  New  York  city  the  law  in  force  at  the  present  time  re- 
quires that  the  Board  of  Health  shall  cause  a careful  inspection 
to  be  made  of  every  tenement  and  lodging  house  at  least  twice 
in  each  year ; and  in  case  of  an  order  having  been  issued,  there 
is  to  be  a reinspection  within  six  Tveeks  after  the  receipt  of 
information  that  the  order  has  been  obeyed.  It  may  fairly  be 
inferred  from  the  result  of  our  labors,  and  I have  endeavored 
to  make  it  so  appear  in  this  report,  that  regular  public  inspec- 
tion of  at  least  the  lower  grade  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses 
in  this  city  also  is  desirable,  and  is,  indeed,  essential  to  much 
further  improvement  in  the  sanitary  condition  here. 


Work  of  the  Board  of  Health. 

This  labor  would  naturally  fall  to  the  Board  of  Health  to 
perform ; and  it  may  be  well  at  this  point  to  consider  briefly 
the  work  of  that  body.  The  Board  consists  of  three  members, 
appointed  by  the  Mayor,  and  charged  by  law  with  the  general 


52 


oversight  of  the  public  health,  and  with  the  enforcement  of 
various  statutes  and  ordinances  designed  for  its  preservation. 
To  it  come  from  citizens  great  numbers  of  complaints  of  defec- 
tive sanitary  conditions  in  the  premises  in  which  they  live,  or 
in  the  premises  of  their  neighbors.  To  all  these  complaints  — 
many  of  them  trivial,  and  some  malicious  — attention  must  be 
given.  For  that  purpose,  and  for  carrying  on  the  general  work 
of  the  department,  a force  of  inspectors — fifteen,  I believe, 
in  number  — is  employed.  These  are  men  of  middle  age;  and 
as  this  department  of  city  enterprise  appears  to  be  largely 
an  exception  to  the  usual  interference  of  politics  in  city  work, 
the  inspectors  have  had  opportunity  by  long  experience  to 
become  thoroughly  familiar  with  their  duties,  and  with  the 
sections  of  the  city  in  which  they  labor.  Not  only  are  many 
formal  written  complaints,  such  as  I have  alluded  to,  received 
every  day,  but  many  others  are  made  verbally  to  the  inspec- 
tors as  they  patrol  their  districts ; and,  still  further,  these  men 
are  expected  to  employ  their  time  in  following  up  cases  already 
on  hand,  and  in  maintaining  a general  supervision  of  their 
districts.  The  value  of  the  labors  thus  performed  cannot  be 
doubted,  and  should  be  highly  estimated.  I was  struck  at  once 
and  throughout  our  own  work  with  the  general  confidence  and 
respect  manifested  by  the  people  toward  the  Board-of-Health 
inspectors, — feelings  which  could  have  been  aroused  only  by 
just  and  reasonable  treatment.  Incidentally,  a great  deal 
of  house  inspection  is  done  by  these  men  in  the  regular  course 
of  their  work,  and  from  time  to  time  inspections  of  certain 
blocks  or  limited  districts  are,  for  special  purposes,  ordered  by 
the  Board. 

It  appears  to  be  impracticable,  however,  for  the  present  force 
of  inspectors,  in  addition  to  their  other  duties,  to  attempt  any 
systematic  and  thorough  work  of  this  character  on  a large 


53 


scale.  As  a rule,  each  inspector  has  in  his  charge  two  wards. 
Thus,  one  man  has  Wards  6 and  7,  another,  8 and  9,  and  so  on ; 
and  while  one  inspector  is  away  on  his  annual  vacation,  his 
neighbor  may  have  all  four  wards  in  hand.  The  inspector  for 
Wards  6 and  7 has  under  his  care  a population  of  30,000  or 
more  of  the  most  difficult  people  of  the  city  to  manage ; the 
inspector  for  Wards  8 and  9 has,  say,  25,000;  and  at  times 
either  one  may  have  on  his  hands  the  demands  of  a population 
of  over  50,000  persons.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  with  so 
small  a force  proper  care  can  be  taken  of  the  sanitary  condition 
of  such  a population,  living  in  the  oldest  and  poorest  houses, 
in  the  most  crowded  and  worst-drained  parts  of  the  city.  I am 
strongly  of  the  belief,  therefore,  that  the  inspecting  force  of 
the  Board  of  Health  should  be  augmented  for  the  express 
purpose  of  making  semi-annual  inspections  of  all  tenement  and 
lodging  houses.  This  would  involve  a somewhat  increased 
appropriation  ; but  I can  think  of  no  way  in  which  a moderate 
expenditure  of  money  is  likely  to  result  in  more  general  or 
genuine  practical  benefit  to  the  community. 

It  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  position  occupied  by 
the  Board  of  Health  is  a difficult  one.  It  is  exposed  upon  the 
one  hand  to  the  friendly  but  sometimes  impatient  criticism  of 
those  anxious  to  see  improvements  effected,  the  practical  diffi- 
culties of  which  are  not  realized  ; and  on  the  other  hand  to  the 
bitter  opposition  of  those  who  conceive  their  financial  interests 
or  personal  rights  to  be  invaded  by  its  acts.  The  Board  is, 
undoubtedly,  sensitive  to  public  opinion.  It  may  and  should 
occupy  ground  somewhat  in  the  lead  of  that  powerful  force,  but 
it  cannot  successfully  work  very  far  in  advance.  Not  only, 
then,  does  it  need  men  and  money  sufficient  for  its  purposes, 
but  it  requires  fully  as  much  the  cooperation  and  the  moral 
support  of  the  citizens  ; and,  further,  the  laws,  which  are  the 


54 


embodiment  of  enlightened  public  sentiment,  should  be  such 
as  to  permit  of  reasonably  prompt,  effective,  and  thorough 
work. 

The  Tenement-House  Problem  in  New  York. 

The  laws  at  present  in  force  here  are  very  valuable,  and 
together  with  the  common  law,  as  interpreted  by  the  courts, 
furnish  the  Board  of  Health  with  wide  power.  To  some  of  the 
statute  laws  I have,  in  the  course  of  this  report,  made  reference, 
and  suggestions  have  also  been  advanced  of  certain  other  pro- 
visions that  might  be  made  to  advantage.  Changes  or  additions 
of  details  can  best  be  proposed  by  the  Board  itself,  which,  from 
experience,  is  in  a position  to  see  their  need.  More  general 
provisions,  and  those  involving  important  principles,  may 
properly  be  proposed  and  discussed  by  others.  The  laws  hold- 
ing in  New  York  and  Boston  relative  to  tenement  and  lodging 
houses  are  in  numerous  respects  similar,  and  in  some  are  iden- 
tical, even  in  wording.  The  more  serious  aspects  of  tenement- 
house  life  in  New  York,  however,  the  wider  experience  of  a 
larger  city,  and  the  active  private  interest  that  has  been  there 
aroused,  have  led  to  more  comprehensive  alterations  in,  and 
additions  to,  the  laws  of  the  former  city  than  have  been  made  to 
those  of  Boston. 

Public  efforts  in  New  York  toward  tenement-house  reform 
date  back  some  thirty  years,  to  the  time  of  the  first  legislative 
inquiry  into  the  question.  The  public  sentiment  which  thus 
found  expression  asserted  itself  in  a more  emphatic  and  suc- 
cessful manner  a few  years  later,  in  the  report  of  a council  of 
the  Citizens’  Association.  In  1867,  a tenement-house  law  was 
passed,  which  for  twenty  years  served  as  the  basis  for  public 
efforts  toward  the  improvement  of  tenement-house  life.  As 
might  be  supposed,  this  law  met  at  first  with  severe  opposition 


55 


in  enforcement,  was  but  imperfectly  executed,  and  was  inher- 
ently weak  in  numerous  points.  That  it  was,  however,  a step 
in  the  right  direction,  and  in  accord  with  the  current  of  ad- 
vanced public  opinion,  was  fully  indicated  by  the  greatly 
enlarged  and  even  radical  powers  granted  to  the  Health  Depart- 
ment by  the  " Tenement-House  Act  ” of  1887.  This  act  followed 
an  investigation  by  a special  legislative  commission  appointed 
in  1884  ; nevertheless,  its  passage  appears  to  have  been  brought 
about  mainly  through  the  persistent  and  enthusiastic  efforts  of 
private  individuals  and  associations  that  had  a genuine  interest 
in  this  important  reform.  That  the  labors  of  these  thirty  years 
in  New  York  city  have  borne  splendid  fruit  in  the  development 
of  more  healthful  conditions  of  tenement-house  life  can  easily 
be  believed.  The  improvement  is  shown  convincingly  by  the 
statistics  of  a steadily  falling  death-rate  among  young  children, 
and  might,  indeed,  be  confidently  assumed  merely  from  a con- 
sideration of  the  vast  progress  which  public  supervision  has 
brought  about  in  the  structural  design  of  the  tenement  houses. 
The  history  of  all  these  efforts  in  New  York  has  been  very 
clearly  and  concisely  presented  by  the  President  of  the  Board 
of  Health  of  that  city,  in  his  report  of  last  December,  upon  the 
" Tenement-House  Problem.” 

Some  of  the  provisions  of  the  New  York  laws  are  perhaps 
uncalled  for  here ; regarding  the  principles  involved  in  others, 
there  may  be  difference  of  opinion.  Others,  again,  I think, 
commend  themselves  for  adoption  in  this  city.  Some  of  the 
more  important  provisions  of  those  laws  which  do  not,  so  far 
as  I can  judge,  exist  in  our  own  laws,  are  as  follows  : — 

(1. ) Upon  requisition  of  the  Board  of  Health,  at  least  fifteen 
officers  and  men  to  be  detailed  by  the  Board  of  Police  specially 
for  enforcement  of  laws  relating  to  tenement  and  lod<nn£  houses. 

(2.)  A commission,  consisting  of  the  Mayor,  one  delegate 


56 


from  the  Department  of  Health,  one  from  the  Department  of 
Public  Works,  one  from  the  Department  of  Street-Cleaning, 
and  one  from  the  Bureau  of  Inspection  of  Buildings,  to 
meet  annually  and  prepare  such  recommendations  as  they  deem 
for  the  public  good,  of  improvements  in  the  laws  affecting  tene- 
ment and  lodging  houses,  these  recommendations  to  be  pre- 
sented to  the  Governor,  Senate,  and  Assembly  ; also  recom- 
mendations to  the  Board  of  Health  of  changes  in  the  execution 
of  these  laws. 

(3.)  Appointment  of  a statistician  to  prepare  the  statistics 
of  the  city  Board  for  its  use,  and  for  transmission  to  the  State 
Board  of  Health. 

(4.)  Authorization  to  appoint  ten  medical  sanitary  in- 
spectors. 

(5.)  Establishment  of  a Tenement-House  Fund,  to  be  used 
solely  for  the  enforcement  of  orders  of  the  Board  of  Health  in 
relation  to  tenement  houses.  All  expenditures  from  the  fund 
to  be  collected  from  the  property  upon  which  made,  or  from  the 
owners,  tenants,  or  occupiers  of  the  property. 

(6.)  At  least  one  water-closet  required  for  every  fifteen  oc- 
cupants of  tenement  and  lodging  houses.  All  plumbing  and 
drainage  work  and  plumbing  fixtures  to  conform  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  Board  of  Health.  The  placing  of  filth,  urine,  or 
fecal  matter  in  any  other  place  in  a tenement  house  than  that  pro- 
vided for  it,  or  storing  it  in  an  apartment  so  long  as  to  create  a 
nuisance,  declared  a misdemeanor  on  the  part  of  the  person  so 
offending.  No  privy-vault  or  cesspool  to  be  allowed  in  connec- 
tion with  a tenement  house,  except  when  unavoidable,  and  then 
by  permit  from  the  Board  of  Health  only,  to  whose  requirements 
as  to  location  and  construction  it  must  also  conform.  No 
privy-vault  to  remain  connected  with  a tenement  house  after 
Jan.  1,  1887,  except  in  cases  specially  named  in  the  law. 


57 


(7.)  Every  owner  and  every  person  having  control  of  a 
tenement  or  lodging  house  required  to  file  in  the  Department 
of  Health  his  name  and  address,  a description  of  the  property 
by  street  number  or  otherwise,  the  number  of  apartments,  the 
number  of  rooms  in  each  apartment,  the  number  of  persons  oc- 
cupying each  apartment,  and  the  trades  or  occupations  carried 
on  therein.  He  must  also  immediately  file  notice  of  change  in 
any  of  these  matters. 

Posting  conspicuously  upon  a tenement  house  a copy  of  an 
order  or  notice,  declared  to  be  sufficient  service,  although  a 
copy  is  also  to  be  mailed  when  the  owner  or  agent  has  registered 
as  provided. 

(8.)  Semi-annual  inspections  of  every  tenement  and  lodging 
house  to  be  caused  to  be  made  by  the  Board  of  Health,  and  re- 
inspections within  six  weeks  after  the  receipt  of  information  of 
the  obeying  of  an  order. 

(9.)  No  building  to  be  built  for  or  converted  to  the  purposes 
of  a tenement  or  lodging  house,  and  no  existing  tenement  or 
lodging  house  to  be  enlarged,  or  its  lot  diminished,  so  that  it  shall 
occupy  more  than  65  per  cent,  of  the  lot,  excepting  corner  lots 
and  cases  for  which  the  Board  of  Health  grants  special  permits. 

(10.)  Cellar  floors  of  all  tenement  houses  to  be  cemented 
and  made  water-tight  before  Jan.  1,  1887. 

(11.)  The  Board  of  Health  authorized,  when  it  shall  appear 
wise  or  necessary,  to  reduce  the  number  of  occupants  in  over- 
crowded houses  or  rooms  until  the  inmates  shall  not  exceed  one 
to  every  six  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  space  in  such  houses  or 
rooms. 

In  a tenement  house  containing  more  than  eight  families,  and 
in  which  the  owner  does  not  reside,  the  Board  of  Health  may 
require  a resident  janitor  or  other  responsible  person  to  have 
charge  of  the  house. 


58 


(12.)  A tenement  house,  within  the  meaning  of  the  law, 
defined  to  be  one  occupied  by  three  or  more  families. 

The  last-mentioned  clause  is  deserving  of  special  notice.  In 
this  city,  it  will  be  remembered,  the  tenement-house  laws  apply 
only  to  buildings  occupied  by  more  than  three  families,  or  by 
more  than  two  families  upon  any  floor  above  the  second  In 
New  York,  however,  the  law  reaches  houses  containing  only 
three  families,  — a vast  extension.  In  Chicago,  as  nearly  as  I can 
judge,  the  tenement-house  law  applies  to  all  rented  buildings. 

The  reasons  which  have  led  to  the  limitations  here  in  force 
are,  I presume,  a desire  not  to  harass  people  by  unnecessary  reg- 
ulations, and  a belief  that  the  principal  evils  of  tenement-house 
life  would  be  reached  in  houses  of  four  or  more  families.  In 
this  city  there  are  so  many  small  wooden  houses,  built  long  ago, 
now  in  use  by  tenants,  that  the  proportion  of  tenants  occupying 
houses  of  not  more  than  three  families  is  probably  greater  than 
in  some  other  cities  of  more  recent  development.  It  appeared 
in  our  examinations  that  all  the  defects  of  overcrowding,  drainage, 
and  so  on,  that  exist  in  the  larger  houses,  are  to  be  found  with 
about  equal  frequency  in  those  lying  outside  the  limits  of  the 
tenement-house  law ; and  although  the  evils  and  danger  spring- 
ing from  these  insanitary  conditions  are  undoubtedly  intensified 
in  the  larger  houses,  I see  no  good  reason  why  the  provisions  of 
the  tenement-house  law  should  not  in  time  be  extended  so  as  to 
insure  to  a much  larger  proportion  of  tenants  the  protection 
from  landlords  that  is  now  sought  to  be  afforded  to  some. 

A single  example  may  illustrate  the  desirability  of  this.  At 

No.  — — place,  in  the  North  End,  we  found  a little 

wooden  house,  not  larger  in  plan  than  a fair-sized  room,  meas- 
uring but  14x17  feet,  occupied  by  a single  family  of  seven 
persons.  The  house  was  in  a disgraceful  condition.  The  roof 
was  leaky,  and  the  cellar  in  a disgusting  state  as  the  result  of  a 


59 


defective  drain  and  the  use  of  the  cellar  in  place  of  the  water- 
closet,  which  had  been  broken  to  pieces  by  previous  tenants, 
who  had  kept  a sailors’  lodging  house.  The  agent  had  prom- 
ised this  family  that  when  they  moved  in  everything  should  be 
made  right,  but  after  they  had  become  settled  it  was,  "If  you 
don’t  like  it,  go  ! ” 

Desiring  to  know  whether  or  not  the  features  peculiar  to  the 
New  York  laws,  as  above  outlined,  have  proved  of  practical 
value  to  the  authorities  charged  with  their  execution,  I ad- 
dressed a letter,  a short  time  since,  to  Mr.  James  C.  Bayles, 
President  and  Commissioner  of  the  Health  Department  of  the 
city  of  New  York,  making  specific  inquiries  regarding  the 
various  provisions  to  which  I have  referred.  The  courteous 
answer  of  Mr.  Bayles  to  these  inquiries  furnishes  a fund  of 
most  valuable  information  relative  to  the  practical  working  of 
those  laws,  and  I quote  verbatim  his  replies,  which  have  the 
same  numerical  designations  as  the  queries  addressed  to  him. 

1 . " The  law  relative  to  the  detailing  of  police-officers  to 

serve  as  a sanitary  company  under  command  of  the  President 
of  the  Board  of  Health,  was  so  amended  in  April,  1887,  as  to 
increase  the  detail  from  fifteen  to  forty-five  officers  of  the  police 
force  to  undertake  the  enforcement  of  the  tenement  and  lodging 
house  laws.  The  sanitary  company  now  consists  of  a sergeant, 
roundsman,  and  forty-three  patrolmen.  One  of  the  patrolmen 
is  detailed  to  the  service  of  the  Chief  Inspector  of  the  Division 
of  Food  Inspection,  to  assist  in  milk  raids  and  other  enter- 
prises of  like  character.  The  other  forty-two  are  constantly 
engaged  in  work  pertaining  to  the  enforcement  of  the  tenement 
and  lodging  house  laws.  The  system  works  very  well.  In  a 
manuscript  report  from  the  Chief  Sanitary  Inspector,  who  has 
immediate  command  of  the  lay  inspectors  and  sanitary  company 
of  police,  I find  the  following : T am  every  year  more  strongly 


60 


impressed  with  the  value  of  the  service  of  the  sanitary  police, 
and  become  firmer  in  my  conviction  that  they  are  an  indispen- 
sable auxiliary  to  the  organization  of  the  Health  Department.  I . 
confidently  predict  that'  when  the  next  annual  report  is  sub- 
mitted, it  will  satisfactorily  demonstrate  that  citizens’  com- 
plaints are  promptly  attended  to,  that  nuisances  are  discovered 
and  abated  without  unnecessary  delay,  and  that  the  laws  and 
provisions  of  the  Sanitary  Code  are  more  strictly  observed  and 
better  results  secured  by  the  present  organization  of  utilizing 
the  services  of  the  lay  inspectors  and  sanitary  police  than  here- 
tofore attained.’  With  this  opinion  I,  in  a great  degree,  con- 
cur.” 

2.  "The  Commission,  consisting  of  the  Mayor  and  one 
representative  each  from  the  Health  Department,  Department 
of  Public  Works,  Department  of  Street-Cleaning,  and  the 
Bureau  of  Inspection  of  Buildings,  might  be  a very  useful 
body,  but  from  its  composition  it  is  not  likely  to  become  so. 
I am  the  only  member  of  that  Commission  having  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  tenement-house  problem,  or  any  official  concern 
with  the  execution  of  the  laws  thereto  relating.  It  was  evi- 
dent to  me,  therefore,  that  if  the  Commission  at  its  first  and, 
thus  far,  only  meeting  did  anything  of  value,  it  devolved  upon 
me  to  take  the  initiative.  I therefore  prepared  for  this  Com- 
mission a very  elaborate  report,  setting  forth  the  history  of 
tenement-house  legislation  in  New  York  for  a series  of  years, 
and  the  work  of  the  Board  in  enforcing  the  laws  relating  to 
tenement  and  lodging  houses.  This  report  was  adopted  by  the 
Commission  as  its  report,  and  was  transmitted  to  Albany  for 
the  information  of  the  Legislature.  It  was  subsequently 
printed  by  order  of  the  Legislature. 

"It  will  be  necessary,  in  compliance  with  the  terms  of  the 
law,  that  another  meeting  of  this  Commission  shall  be  held  some- 


61 


time  after  the  fifteenth  day  of  November.  For  that  meeting  I 
shall  prepare  certain  specific  recommendations  for  the  Legisla- 
ture in  the  shape  of  drafts  of  bills  adding  to  or  amending  the 
existing  laws  in  certain  minor  details.  I mention  these  facts 
merely  to  show  that  unless  some  member  of  such  a commission 
takes  an  active,  personal,  and  intelligent  interest  in  the  tene- 
ment-house question,  its  deliberations  are  not  likely  to  develop 
anything  of  value. 

* 3.  "The  Tenement-House  Commission  has  not  appointed  a 
statistician,  and  in  view  of  the  completeness  of  the  information 
furnished  by  the  Health  Department,  will  probably  find  no 
need  to  do  so. 

4.  "The  provision  of  law  to  which  you  allude  in  this  inquiry 
has  been  amended  to  read,  that  the  Board  of  Health  ' may 
appoint  and  commission  such  number  of  sanitary  inspectors  as 
the  Board  may  deem  needful,  not  exceeding  forty.  . . . But 
twenty  of  such  inspectors  shall  be  physicians  of  skill  and  practi- 
cal professional  experience  in  said  city.’  In  the  use  of  the 
medical  inspectors  we  depart  from  the  intent  of  the  law  under 
a general  discretion  given  us  to  assign  all  officers  of  the  Board 
to  such  service  as  may  seem  to  us  best.  At  the  present  time 
no  medical  inspectors  are  serving  as  sanitary  inspectors.  They 
have  all  been  assigned  to  duty  in  the  Division  of  Contagious 
Diseases,  and  all  the  work  of  sanitary  inspection  is  now  done 
by  the  lay  inspectors  and  the  police.  We  do  not  find  that 
physicians  make  good  sanitary  inspectors.  The  work  devolv- 
ing upon  them  is  largely  of  a kind  for  which  their  education 
gives  them  no  especial  qualifications ; and  as  they  are  likely  to 
regard  it  as  ' unprofessional/  they  do  it  reluctantly  and  in  a 
perfunctory  way.  It  is  our  experience  that  a physician  should 
never  be  employed  in  any  work  not  strictly  in  keeping  with 
his  own  sense  of  professional  dignity.  I would  strongly 


62 


recommend  that  in  any  legislation  which  may  be  considered  in 
Massachusetts,  the  Board  of  Health  be  left  to  exercise  its  own 
discretion  as  to  the  proportion  of  physicians  and  laymen  on 
its  staff. 

5.  " The  provisions  of  the  law  relative  to  the  establishment 
of  a tenement-house  fund  were  never  operative.  The  Board  of 
Estimate  and  Apportionment  declined  to  set  aside  a sum  of 
money  for  this  purpose,  and  we  have  never  had  it.  Fortu- 
nately, it  has  become  unnecessary.  Under  the  operations  of' 
the  law  relative  to  vacation,  enacted  March  25,  1887,  it  is  no 
longer  necessary  for  the  Board  to  do  work  and  file  a lien  against 
unknown  or  absent  owners  to  cover  the  cost  of  the  same.  We 
are  now  able  to  require  the  owner  to  do  it,  and  this  is  much 
better  and  simpler  than  the  way  originally  provided  by  law. 

6.  "The  provisions  of  the  law  covered  by  this  inquiry  are,  to 
a great  extent,  arbitrary  and  improper.  Matters  of  this  kind 
should  be  left  largely  to  the  discretion  of  the  local  health 
authorities.  All  mandatory  requirements  are  apt  to  work 
injustice  in  special  cases.  I should  urgently  recommend  in  all 
legislation  having  this  or  similar  objects  in  view,  that  local 
Boards  of  Health  be  empowered  in  their  discretion  to  require 
the  owner  to  make  such  and  such  improvements,  and  that  in  no 
case  this  discretion  be  taken  away  from  them.  Privy-vaults 
and  cesspools  have  been  abolished  to  such  an  extent  that  very 
few  remain  within  the  city  limits.  Whenever  found,  they  are 
vigorously  moved  against,  and  no  consideration  can  be  pre- 
sented to  the  Board  which  will  induce  it  to  rescind  such  an 
order.  Sometimes,  where  no  harm  will  result,  extensions  of 
time  are  granted,  as  in  the  case  of  property  to  be  improved  at  a 
fixed  date  by  the  substitution  of  a different  building  for  the  one 
that  is  now  upon  it ; but  if  this  date  is  remote,  the  order  abol- 
ishing vaults  and  cesspools  is  immediately  and  peremptorily 


63 


enforced.  With  the  single  exception  as  to  the  arbitrary  fixing 
of  the  number  of  water-closets  required  for  tenement  houses, 
this  portion  of  the  law  is  admirable,  and  is  enforced  by  this 
department. 

7.  "The  requirement  imposed  upon  owners  of  tenement  and 
lodging  houses  to  register  their  names  and  addresses  with  the 
Health  Department  has  never  worked  very  well,  for  the  reason 
that  no  penalties  for  non-compliance  were  provided,  and  the 
Board  could  not  enforce  this  order  against  unwilling  owners. 
The  registration  in  the  case  of  lodging-house  keepers  is  com- 
plete, for  the  reason  that  they  are  required  to  take  out  permits, 
and  cannot  get  such  permits  without  making  their  names  and 
addresses  a matter  of  record.  The  object  of  the  law  requiring 
the  registration  of  the  owners  of  tenement  houses  was  to  enable 
us  to  find  persons  responsible  for  nuisances,  upon  whom  to 
serve  orders ; but  the  power  to  vacate  for  non-compliance  with 
orders  obviates  the  necessity  for  such  record.  When  a house 
gets  in  such  a condition  that  repairs  are  necessary,  and  the 
owner  either  cannot  be  found  or  fails  to  comply  with  orders, 
the  Board  issues  a vacation  order,  and  immediately  the  owner 
comes  to  the  front  with  his  hat  in  his  hand  to  ask  the  pleasure 
of  the  Board.  A vacation  order  never  fails  to  find  the  person 
responsible  for  the  condition  of  the  premises.  At  the  present 
time,  therefore,  we  are  not  attempting  to  keep  up  any  fuller 
directory  of  tenement-house  owners  than  can  be  had  by  a volun- 
tary registration.  The  posting  of  an  order  in  a conspicuous 
place  within  or  upon  a tenement  house  is  a sufficient  service, 
even  though  we  are  unable  to  reach  the  owner  by  mail. 

8.  "Under  the  present  law,  there  is  a semi-annual  inspection 
of  every  tenement  house  in  the  city  twice  in  each  year.  It  is 
but  fair  to  state,  however,  that  our  compliance  with  this  law  is 
not  perfunctory.  There  are  a large  number  of  tenement  houses 


64 


known  to  be  in  bad  condition  which  are  inspected  as  often  as 
once  a week,  another  larger  class  inspected  twice  each  month, 
and  a still  larger  class  inspected  once  each  month.  We  have 
an  accurate  and  constantly  revised  census  of  tenement  houses 
which  is  the  result  of  this  semi-annual  inspection. 

" Reinspections  after  orders  are  issued  are  never  delayed  as 
long  as  the  law  permits ; viz.,  six  weeks.  They  are  usually 
made  within  ten  days.  We  hold  our  inspectors  to  very  close 
responsibility  in  this  matter  of  reinspection,  and  they  are  not 
allowed  to  neglect  it  and  hold  the  papers  indefinitely. 

9.  "The  provisions  of  the  statute  covered  by  this  inquiry  are 
enforced  in  every  case. 

10.  " In  the  exercise  of  their  discretion  the  Commissioners 
believe  that  proof  of  leakage  should  be  furnished  before  an 
order  to  make  a cellar  water-tight  should  be  enforced.  When- 
ever a wet  cellar  is  found,  this  proof  is  obtained,  and  the  order 
to  make  the  floor  water-tight  is  enforced. 

11.  "The  heavy  inflow  of  Italian  immigration  into  New 
York  has  necessitated  more  stringent  measures  looking  to  the 
enforcement  of  the  law  relative  to  overcrowding.  As  the  re- 
sult of  night  inspections,  the  Board  of  Health  issues  every  week 
a large  number  of  orders  reducing  the  population  of  tenement 
houses.  In  the  case  of  families,  we  are  usually  lenient  in  enforc- 
ing an  order  relative  to  the  cubic  air  space  per  occupant ; but 
when  overcrowding  results,  as  is  usually  the  case,  from  the 
taking1  of  lodgers,  such  orders  are  enforced  without  con- 
sideration.  This  law  works  very  well,  and  has  tended  to  pre- 
vent the  huddling  together  of  large  numbers  of  persons  in  rooms 
too  small  to  give  proper  breathing-space. 

" The  Board  of  Health  requires  a janitor  to  be  in  charge  of 
large  tenements  whenever  their  condition  or  the  character  of 
the  occupants  is  such  as  to  render  it  necessary. 


65 


12.  " The  definition  ot  a tenement  house  as  one  occupied  by 
three  or  more  families  is  probably  as  good  as  any  we  can  get. 
It,  of  course,  includes  all  the  large  apartment  houses  ; and  in 
relation  to  these  dwellings,  many  of  which  are  very  elegant, 
the  provisions  of  the  tenement-house  law  are,  of  course, 
impracticable  of  enforcement.  For  example, — to  require  the 
semi-annual  whitewashing  of  the  elegant  frescoed  ceilings  and 
expensively  papered  walls  of  such  apartment  houses  as  the 
Hawthorne,  Ariston,  Lisbon,  and  similar  structures,  in  which 
apartments  rent  for  from  two  to  six  thousand  dollars  per  year, 
would  be  grotesque.  The  Board  holds  its  powers,  as  regards 
these  buildings,  in  the  sense  of  reserved  power,  and  is  able 
whenever  necessity  exists  to  enforce  the  tenement-house  law 
against  them. 

"This  covers  all  your  specific  inquiries,  which  are  so  compre- 
hensive as  to  render  almost  unnecessary  any  information  relative 
to  tenement  and  lodging  houses  additional  to  that  which  is  so 
fully  set  forth  in  my  report  to  the  Mayor.  From  this  you  will 
see  what  an  immense  improvement  has  been  effected  in  the  con- 
struction of  tenement  houses  under  the  operations  of  the  several 
laws  defining  our  powers  relative  thereto. 

"In  addition  to  this,  I have  pleasure  in  sending  you  a copy  of 
our  code  of  plumbing  regulations  which  are  enforced  in  the  case 
of  all  new  buildings  ; and  it  gives  me  pleasure  to  say  that  the 
work  which  is  now  done  in  tenement  houses  is  better  than 
that  found  in  the  best  class  of  private  dwellings  in  the  city. 

"I  also  send  you  a copy  of  the  City  Record,  givinga  detailed 
report  of  the  operations  of  the  department  for  the  quarter 
ending  June  30.  From  this  you  will  see  the  amount  of  work 
done  by  the  Sanitary  Police.”1 


1 Quarter  ending  June  30,  1888. 

The  following  is  a summary  of  the  work  performed  by  the  Sanitary  Police : — 


66 


Responsibility  of  Landlords. 

It  is,  of  course,  understood  that  the  people  with  whom  we 
have  to  deal,  in  this  work,  are  not  altogether  an  innocent,  in- 
offensive, and  easily  imposed  upon  class,  but  that  many  of  them 
are  about  as  rough  and  undesirable  tenants  as  can  be  imagined. 
I have  heard  of  a house-owner  not  daring  to  plank  his  cellar- 
bottom,  for  fear  the  tenants  would  pull  up  the  planks  and  use 
them  for  fire-wood.  Nevertheless,  so  long  as  landlords  choose 
to  receive  these  people  into  their  houses,  they  should  themselves 
be  held  strictly  responsible  for  the  decent  and  healthful  condi- 
tion of  the  premises.  Generally  speaking,  in  those  tene- 
ment houses  in  which  the  landlord  himself  resides  and  looks 
after  affairs,  the  conditions  found  are  far  better  than  in 
houses  managed  by  agents  not  regularly  present,  or  the  land- 
lords of  which  live  in  other  parts  of  the  city  or  out  of  town. 
There  are  several  men  who  are  large  owners  of  tenement- 
house  property  in  the  West  End  and  North  End,  whose  houses 
are  sure  to  be  found  overcrowded  with  the  lowest  classes  of  our 
population,  and  to  be  in  just  as  defective  condition  as  it  is  possi- 
ble for  them  to  be  without  absolutely  defying  the  laws  and  the 
Board  of  Health.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  these  men,  and  many 


Number  of  inspections  made 35,382 

“ “ complaints  made 3,515 

The  number  of  orders  received,  inspected,  and  reported  upon  was  12,094,  of  which 

number  there  have  been  returned  to  the  Sanitary  Superintendent,  — 

Orders  complied  with 3,691 

“ not  complied  with 5,272 

Orders  reinspected  and  found  complied  with  or  progressing  and 
referred  to  Sanitary  Inspectors  for  reinspection  and  report  . 2,880 

Held  for  reinspection 251 

Number  of  scavenger  permits  collected  and  forwarded  to  the 

Sanitary  Superintendent 729 

Number  of  lodging  houses  inspected 458 

“ “ tenement  houses  inspected 15,165 

“ “ families  in  tenement  houses  inspected  ....  106,961 

“ “ water-closets  ordered  in  lieu  of  privy- vaults  . . . 222 


67 


others  like  them,  care  absolutely  nothing  for  the  welfare  of 
their  tenants.  They  conduct  tenement  houses  solely  as  invest- 
ments from  which  they  propose  to  squeeze  every  cent  of  profit 
that  can  be  legally  obtained. 

Just  what  net  return  is  yielded  by  tenement-house  property 
it  is  evidently  impossible  to  learn  in  an  inquiry  of  this  kind  ; 
but  a partial  inference  may  perhaps  be  drawn  from  the  gross 
rentals,  concerning  which  our  reports  permit  of  making,  for 
some  houses,  a rough  approximation.  This  has  been  done  in  a 
considerable  number  of  cases  by  taking  the  total  of  rents  paid 
by  tenants  in  a house,  and  estimating  the  value  of  the  property 
at  a certain  percentage  above  the  assessors’  figures.  Calcula- 
tions thus  made  for  some  forty  tenement  houses  proper,  show 
gross  returns  ranging  mainly  between  10  and  20  per  cent.  In 
about  an  equal  number  of  houses  of  less  than  four  families,  the 
range  was  considerably  higher,  rising  in  several  instances  to 
above  20,  and  even  above  30,  per  cent.  In  several  of  these 
cases  the  annual  rental  exceeds  the  assessed  value  of  the  build- 
ings. 

It  would  probably  be  fair  to  rate  the  returns  from  the  lowest 
class  of  wooden  tenement-houses  proper  in  this  city  at  from  15 
to  20  per  cent,  gross ; from  first-class  brick  tenement  houses, 
at  from  10  to  12  per  cent,  gross  ; while  first-class  business 
property  yields  from  6 to  8 per  cent,  gross,  and  4J  or  5 per 
cent.  net.  Even  at  the  high  rate  mentioned  for  low-grade 
houses,  it  is  probable  that  they  often  fail  to  net  their  owners 
much  over  6 per  cent.,  on  account  of  abuse  of  the  property, 
repairs,  and  bad  debts.  Still  there  are  many  other  cases  in 
which  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that  the  repairs,  grudgingly  made,  can- 
not seriously  reduce  the  gross  income  obtained  from  the  property. 
The  occupants  of  the  lowest  class  of  houses  are  constantly  shift- 
ing ; but  they  are  usually  required  to  pay  their  rent  in  advance, 


68 


so  that  there  is  no  loss  on  that  account.  It  seems  to  me  there 
should  be  no  hesitation  in  requiring  from  these  owners,  as  a 
class,  improvements  which  can  plainly  be  shown  to  be  requisite 
to  a fair  sanitary  condition,  and  which  must  really  benefit 
the  property. 


Open  Squares  for  the  Tenement-House  Districts. 

In  addition  to  the  more  direct  sanitary  work  to  be  under- 
taken through  the  medium  of  the  Board  of  Health  and  the  laws, 
valuable  steps  may  also  be  taken  toward  counteracting  the  evils 
of  crowded  city  life  by  establishing  breathing-places  here  and 
there  in  the  form  of  open  squares.  The  city  has  already  under 
way  splendid  schemes  for  parks,  which  will  beautify  its  surface 
and  be  of  great  benefit  to  the  people.  These  should  be  supple- 
mented, it  seems  to  me,  by  the  clearing  away  of  an  occasional 
opening  in  the  crowded  tenement-house  districts.  These  open- 
ings may  be  of  small  size,  but  should  be  close  at  hand  to  the 
poor  people,  to  whom  they  would  serve  as  a place  of  resort  for 
women  and  children  during  the  day,  tempting  them  away  from 
many  wretched  and  unhealthy  homes. 

Two  or  three  such  squares  might  well  be  established  in  the 
North  End,  and  I am  confident  they  would  constitute  a wise 
and  sound  investment  for  the  city.  If,  owing  to  movements  of 
population  and  encroachments  of  business,  the  necessity  for 
them  should  cease  in  particular  localities,  the  land  could  then, 
if  it  were  thought  desirable,  be  sold.  They  should  be  located 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  most  densely  populated  dis- 
tricts, and  preferably  in  their  midst,  as  their  construction  might 
then  have  additional  value  by  requiring  some  of  the  worst 
houses  to  be  demolished. 

I am  informed  that  a law  has  been  passed  authorizing  the 


69 


establishment  in  New  York  city  of  small  parks  of  precisely  the 
character  which  I have  described.  In  accordance  with  that  law, 
it  has  been  decided  to  take  a whole  block,  in  wffiat  is  known  as 
" Mulberry  Bend,”  bounded  by  Mulberry,  Park,  Bayard,  and 
Baxter  streets,  situated  among  the  worst  slums  in  the  city. 
This  block  will  furnish  a park  measuring  200  x 000  feet,  in 
the  construction  of  which  there  will  be  obliterated  some  of  the 
most  crowded  and  degraded  tenement  houses  to  be  found  in 
New  York. 

As  to  the  value  of  such  improvements,  I cannot  do  better 
than  to  quote  from  a paper  by  Mr.  Charles  H.  Latrobe,  en- 
gineer in  charge  of  the  parks  of  Baltimore,  upon  the  "Influence 
of  Parks  and  Open  Squares  upon  the  Health  of  Cities  and 
Towns : ” — 

" As  General  Superintendent  and  Engineer  of  the  Public 
Parks,  I can  truthfully  say  from  actual  observation,  that  they 
yield  the  only  relief  to  home-worn  women  and  children  and  shop- 
worn men,  when  the  working-day  is  done.  From  5 P.M.  until 
10  P.M.  they  are  thronged  during  the  summer  months.  On 
the  open  lawns  are  tennis  courts,  base-ball  grounds,  and  lacrosse 
fields  for  the  young ; under  the  trees  are  mothers  and  children. 
Coteries  of  old  men  assemble  year  after  year  on  the  same 
benches  under  the  same  trees.  It  is  difficult  to  close  the  public 
squares  at  night  when  the  time  comes,  the  people  cling  to  them 
so  tenaciously.  Their  appreciation  of  them,  I think,  is  manifest 
in  the  fact  that  although  often  situated  in  the  roughest  parts  of 
the  city,  they  are  so  little  injured  by  thoughtless  or  malicious 
people.  Indeed,  in  some  places  the  neighbors  donate  flower- 
beds to  beautify  them,  and  take  the  greatest  interest  in  their 
condition.” 

Mr.  Latrobe  further  says  : " One  error,  I think,  is  likely  to 

be  made  in  the  matter  of  parks  ; viz.,  that  too  much  money  may 


70 


be  spent  in  the  suburban  region  and  too  little  in  the  hearts  of 
our  cities.  My  opinion  is  that  after  the  establishment  of  one  or 
two  large  suburban  parks  for  holiday  resort  and  all-day  picnics, 
all  available  resources  should  be  expended  in  breaking  into  the 
densely  crowded  centres  of  population,  by  the  establishment  of 
attractive  squares  easily  accessible  to  the  worn  parents  and 
sickly  children  of  the  surrounding  districts;  indeed,  the  subur- 
ban parks  might  wait  on  the  urban  squares,  as  these  latter 
would  cultivate  a longing  for  the  larger  liberty  of  the  parks.” 

Other  Public  Improvements. 

As  is  well  known,  the  North  End  is  intersected  in  all  direc- 
tions by  narrow  streets,  so  called,  many  of  them,  such  as  Salu- 
tation, Tileston,  Stillman,  and  Morton,  for  example,  measuring 
but  about  six  feet  between  curbs,  nor  more  than  from  ten  to  fifteen 
feet  between  opposite  building-fronts.  From  such  streets  sun- 
light is  often  almost  completely  excluded.  The  space  for  light 
and  air  for  the  houses  afforded  by  those  streets  is  scarcely  one- 
half  what  the  law  now  demands  for  the  opening  between  front 
and  rear  houses  built  upon  a single  lot.  And  beside  these 
passage-ways  dignified  by  the  name  of  streets,  there  are  number- 
less side  alleys  in  which  similar  conditions  prevail,  only  sun- and 
air  must  needs  struggle  still  harder  in  order  to  gain  admittance. 
It  cannot  be  expected  that  the  city  is  to  be  made  over  anew, 
even  in  the  interests  of  sanitary  reform ; but  the  widening  of 
narrow  streets,  even  if  based  upon  no  other  plea  than  that  of 
the  demands  of  business  or  of  travel,  should  be  hailed  with 
satisfaction  as  also  giving  more  air  and  light  to  the  houses,  and 
probably  necessitating  the  destruction  of  some  that  could  well  be 
spared. 

The  tearing  down  of  old  tenement  houses  is  likely  not  to  be 


CANNY  PLACE,  NORTH  END. 

From  a photograph  taken  at  noon  on  a bright  day. — Blocks  of  tenement  houses  fronting  from 
either  side  upon  an  alley  7 feet  wide. 


71 


undertaken  except  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  business,  or  the 
purposes  of  public  improvements,  or  requirements  of  repairs 
too  severe  to  warrant  keeping  up  the  old  property.  It  is  rather 
difficult  to  draw  the  line  at  which  a house  should  be  condemned 
to  destruction  under  ordinary  circumstances  on  sanitary  grounds, 
inasmuch  as  any  building  can  with  sufficient  expenditure  of 
money  be  put  into  comfortable  condition.  A building  that  is 
plainly  unsafe  as  regards  construction,  or  required  improve- 
ments of  which  are  refused,  will  be  forbidden  occupancy  by  the 
Department  for  the  Inspection  of  Buildings  or  by  the  Board  of 
Health,  as  the  case  may  be.  It  would  evidently  be  unjust  for  the 
Board  of  Health  to  insist  upon  unusual  and  excessive  improve- 
ments simply  in  order  to  root  out  a particular  building ; yet  few 
could  object  to  a sufficiently  high  standard  of  requirements 
under  the  laws,  and  a sufficiently  strict  enforcement  of  those 
requirements,  to  result  in  the  voluntary  destruction  of  some  of 
the  rookeries  which  now  remain  in  the  city.  Thus,  few,  I think, 
would  regret  the  razing  to  the  ground  of  the  buildings  to  be 
found  in  "Tuckers  Yard,”  off  Joy  street,  and  in  some  other 
places  that  might  be  mentioned. 

The  Superintendent  of  Sewers,  in  his  annual  report  for  1887, 
has  called  attention  plainly  to  the  generally  bad  and  often 
dangerous  condition  of  the  sewers  in  the  very  section  in  which 
our  work  has  been  conducted.  So  long  as  those  districts  are 
compelled  to  rely  upon  antiquated  wooden  sewers,  entirely  un- 
suited both  in  design  and  in  grouping  to  present  purposes,  their 
condition  as  regards  healthfulness  must  be  unsatisfactory. 


Improved  Tenement  Houses. 

While  public  measures  for  the  improvement  of  the  sanitary 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes  are  indispensable,  the  extent 


72 


to  which  they  are  conceived  and  enforced  will  be  governed  by 
the  state  of  opinion  and  interest  among  that  portion  of  the 
people  having  influence  in  such  matters.  The  mere  passing  of 
laws  and  granting  of  money  will  not  accomplish  everything ; 
and  nothing  can  be  more  valuable  in  aiding  to  public  suc- 
cess than  the  cooperation  of  private  effort.  To  the  honor 
of  the  city  it  may  be  said  that  such  efforts  have  been,  and  are 
now  being,  freely  put  forth  here.  The  work  of  supplying 
improved  tenement  houses  for  the  poorer  classes  opens  a wide 
and  interesting  field  to  consideration,  and  can  only  be  touched 
upon  in  this  report.  The  operations  of  the  Boston  Coopera- 
» tive  Building  Company,  which  has  a paid  capital  stock  of  over 
$200,000,  and  conducts  thirty-nine  houses,  accommodating 
some  two  hundred  families,  afford  a conspicuous  example  of 
work  of  this  kind  upon  a large  scale.  The  Improved  Dwellings’ 
Association,  with  a paid  capital  of  $100,000,  manages  another 
noteworthy  enterprise  of  like  character.  There  are  numerous 
similar  undertakings  conducted  upon  a more  modest  scale  by 
individuals,  which  I will  not  mention  in  detail,  but  which  are 
of  the  greatest  value  in  elevating  the  condition  of  the  tenement- 
house  population  of  the  city.  These  undertakings  are  managed, 
so  far  as  I am  aware,  as  business  enterprises,  it  being  expected 
to  charge  about  the  market  rate  for  rents,  but  to  keep  the 
houses  in  as  good  repair  as  the  receipts  will  warrant,  con- 
sistently with  a moderate  net  income.  Such  enterprises  are 
not  only  a direct  blessing  to  the  tenants  who  are  accommodated, 
but  they  are  valuable  object-lessons  to  show  what  may  be  done 
by  fair  and  considerate  treatment  in  maintaining  discipline 
among  tenants,  and  in  reclaiming  to  a decent  sanitary  condition 
some  of  the  worst  parts  of  the  city. 

For  the  general  advancement  by  private  action  of  the  sanitary 
conditions  into  which  it  has  been  my  duty  to  inquire,  I can  see 


73 


no  more  sensible  or  probably  efficient  method  than  the  con- 
sideration of  the  questions  involved  by  permanent  committees  ; 
for  example,  one  for  each  ward,  which  shall  have  a constant 
oversight  upon  their  districts,  and  shall  undertake  to  direct 
attention  and  effort  to  particular  houses  or  localities,  and  to 
agitate  and  press  for  the  improvement  of  those  until  successful. 


Conclusions  and  Recommendations. 

It  has  been  sought  in  this  report  to  present  fairly  the  condi- 
tions which  were  encountered  in  our  examinations,  as  well  as 
to  state  certain  conclusions  and  recommendations  which  have 
naturally  followed.  It  has,  doubtless,  been  noticed  that  these 
recommendations  have  been  in  the  direction  of  an  increase  in 
the  scope  of  effort,  and  a consistent  enlargement  of  the  powers 
and  resources  of  the  Board  of  Health.  The  safety  of  the 
principle  of  investing  wide  powers  in  a small  body  of  men  for 
the  purpose  of  protecting  the  public  health  has  been  abundantly 
proved,  here  and  elsewhere,  by  years  of  experience ; and  the 
question  which,  it  seems  to  me,  should  now  be  considered  is 
that  of  strengthening  and  extending  a line  of  work  which  is 
directly  connected  with  the  health,  and,  therefore,  with  the 
happiness  and  prosperity,  of  the  entire  community. 

The  aim  has  been,  not  so  much  to  formulate  these  recom- 
mendations in  precise  detail,  as  to  indicate  certain  principles 
which  it  seems  important  to  establish  in  the  public  supervision 
of  tenement  and  lodging  houses  of  low  grade.  As  to  how  far 
these  principles  should  be  established  directly  bylaws  and  ordi- 
nances, or  by  regulations  and  discretionary  action  of  the  Board 
of  Health,  it  has  not  been  attempted  nicely  to  decide.  It  is  evi- 
dently to  be  desired  that  the  laws  should,  on  the  one  hand,  state 
as  clearly  and  definitely  as  practicable  the  requirements  in  sani- 


74 


tary  matters,  which  must  be  observed  by  citizens  ; and  that  they 
should,  on  the  other  hand,  define  similarly  the  duties  and  powers 
of  the  Board  of  Health,  which  must  rely  mainly  upon  these  laws 
in  its  efforts.  The  public  superintendence  which  it  is  thus  sought 
to  exercise,  must,  however,  in  order  to  be  effectual,  be  so 
largely  a matter  of  detail,  and  properly  depending  upon  expe- 
rience and  judgment,  that  an  attempt  to  incorporate  into  the 
laws  fixed  regulations  for  all  minor  points  would  prove  unsatis- 
factory in  results.  It  appears  to  me,  therefore,  that  in  applying 
the  principles  of  the  laws  there  should  be  left  to  the  Board  of 
Health  much  range  for  the  exercise  of  discretion  ; while,  at  the 
same  time,  in  any  particular  case  that  may  arise,  there  should 
be  no  doubt  as  to  what  the  responsibility  and  authority  of  the 
Board  are  in  the  premises. 

The  principal  suggestions  which  have  been  made  in  this 
paper  may  now  be  summarized  as  follows,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  have  appeared  : — 

Issuance,  at  the  discretion  of  the  Board  of  Health,  of  permits 
to  owners  or  lessees  of  tenement  and  lodging  houses,  limiting 
the  number  of  occupants,  as  an  assistance  in  checking  over- 
crowding. 

Doing  away  to  the  fullest  practicable  extent  with  the  employ- 
ment of  inner  rooms,  not  communicating  directly  with  the  outer 
air,  in  existing  tenement  and  lodging  houses,  and  the  adoption 
of  efficient  measures  to  prevent  their  introduction  into  new  con- 
struction. Restrictions  for  the  future  regarding  the  proportion 
of  a lot  to  be  covered  by  a tenement  or  lodging  house. 

If  cellars  and  basements  are  to  be  allowed  to  be  occupied 
regularly  as  dwellings,  then  they  should  be  required  to  be 
made  water-tight ; but  it  is  advised  that  the  occupancy  of  cellars 
and  basements  for  sleeping  purposes  should  be  prohibited. 

More  rigorous  enforcement  of  the  law  against  uncleanliness. 


Provision  for  the  removal  of  privy-vaults  from  alleys  and 
courts  excepted  in  the  present  law  on  . account  of  not  having 
sewers. 

Sink  waste-pipes  to  be  required  to  be  individually  trapped. 

The  establishing  of  such  detailed  regulations  as  may  seem 
wise  concerning  house  drainage  and  plumbing  fixtures,  and  the 
general  supervision  of,  and  discretionary  action  regarding,  the 
same  to  be  undertaken  by  the  Board  of  Health. 

Inspecting  force  of  the  Board  of  Health  to  be  increased  for 
the  purpose  of  semi-annual  inspection  of  tenement  and  lodging 
houses. 

Widening  of  the  scope  of  the  tenement-house  law,  so  as  to 
embrace  houses  of  a smaller  number  of  families  than  is  specified 
in  the  present  law. 

Establishment  of  open  squares  in  the  midst  of  the  tenement- 
house  districts. 

Widening  of  narrow  streets  where  practicable. 

Such  severity  in  the  laws  and  their  enforcement  as  shall  tend 
to  do  away  with  some  of  the  most  objectionable  houses  now  in 
use. 

Improvement  of  the  sewerage  in  certain  streets  where  it  is 
now  known  to  be  bad. 

These  recommendations  are  not  pretended  to  be  all  that 
might  be  made  to  advantage,  but  are  rather  those  the  necessity 
of  which  was  forced  upon  attention  as  the  result  of  our  examina- 
tions. Still  other  measures  which  have  commended  themselves 
in  the  experience  of  New  York,  or  possibly  other  cities,  may 
prove  themselves  also  worthy  of  adoption  here.  Again,  it  is  not 
assumed  that  the  results  of  this  examination  offer  a key  to  the 
complete  solution  of  the  tenement-house  problem  as  a whole. 
There  are  other  sides  to  this  problem  besides  that  approached 
in  a sanitary  survey,  and  the  latter  alone  has  been  dealt  with 


76 


here.  It  may  seem  that  the  various  conclusions  drawn  and 
recommendations  made  are  broader  than  were  warranted  by 
partial  and  somewhat  hasty  inspections  of  limited  districts  ; yet 
I am  of  the  opinion  that  very  similar  results  would  have  been 
reached  by  me  in  any  investigation,  however  extensive  and 
elaborate. 

In  concluding,  I desire  to  acknowledge  the  very  valuable  aid 
which  I have  received  from  Miss  Margaret  Greene  and  Mr. 
Arthur  B.  Ellis,  members  of  the  committee ; and  to  record  my 
appreciation  of  the  services  of  my  assistants,  Frank  A.  Smythe, 
George  C.  Whipple,  Frank  I.  Capen,  Samuel  H.  Mildram, 
William  S.  Johnson,  and  Alfred  W.  French. 

Very  respectfully, 


DWIGHT  PORTER. 


